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Colorado voters reject raising taxes to support education
Topic Started: Nov 3 2011, 03:26 AM (151 Views)
Jim Miller
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Is Colorado anti-education or anti-anymore taxes?

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Colorado voters reject raising taxes to support education
November 1, 2011 | 8:20 pm


In what could be a harbinger of the 2012 election, Colorado voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have raised nearly $3 billion for education by temporarily increasing state income, sales and use taxes.

With 59% of the projected vote counted, Proposition 103 was trailing 65% to 35%, the Associated Press reported.

The debate over the measure closely mirrored recent rancor in Washington over the question of whether more spending will revive a moribund economy or slow down a nascent recovery.

A likely swing state in 2012, Colorado is a particularly interesting place to see which argument voters cotton to. Its population is well-educated, with more than one-third of residents older than 25 holding at least a bachelor’s degree. But the state’s unemployment rate has been stuck around 8%, and a solid share of the electorate finds taxes distasteful, passing a major tax-limitation measure in 1992.

If Proposition 103 had passed, individual and corporate tax rates would have temporarily jumped from 4.63% to 5% and the sales and use tax rate from 2.9% to 3%, the Associated Press reported.

Supporters intended for the extra money to plug holes in the state’s K-12 and college education budgets, which have endured hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts. Opponents said the state’s economy was too fragile to withstand higher taxes, which would have expired after 2016, and that throwing money at education wouldn’t necessarily improve its quality.

The measure's supporters were better funded than its critics, but they were frustrated by tepid support from top Democrats, including new Gov. John Hickenlooper, who said he would not back any tax hikes during his first year in office, the Associated Press reported.

Last year, historically anti-tax Oregon voters approved two measures that raised taxes on corporations and the wealthy. But Washington state voters rejected a similar measure, despite the high-profile backing of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his prominent philanthropist father, William.
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colo_crawdad
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I think that what happened is that many Colorado voters recently voted for and passed a Constitutional Amendment requiring more money to be spent on education than was in this package. The legislature has ignored the Constitution and chosen to spend the money elsewhere. It may well be that that very distrust f the legislature caused the voters to reject this attempt.
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Mike
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Are you saying Lowell and a jury nullification like mindset has set in among Coloradans?

Here in my town, the district closed one grade school and assigned off the students to the four remaining schools.

Background: Our school district encompasses Nye County, home to approximately 50,000 people yet rural in nature and one of the largest counties area-wise in the nation. Nearly 40,000 of the residents live here in Pahrump. So closing the school was big news.

The district claimed that with the reduction in funding due to reduced value of property and the economy affecting sales tax revenues, that classroom size would approach 50 in the grade schools. After the dust settled, the average classroom size is 28 students, and the district has been able to work within the budget allowed.

I bring this up because educating our children should be of highest concern and deed, yet the efficiency and waste issues that arise has made many citizens wary of what the leaders say or stake claim to. Bloated administrative staffing and wasteful spending in areas having little if anything to do with education were uncovered by the newspaper.

What does this have to do with Colorado? I was wondering if the folks over there have become disenchanted with the way government is handling education of the children and thus the backlash against higher taxes.
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Jim Miller
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colo_crawdad
Nov 3 2011, 03:49 AM
It may well be that that very distrust f the legislature caused the voters to reject this attempt.
I can understand that. Not much in government these days can be trusted.
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tomdrobin
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Spending more money doesn't necessarily mean a better education. Probably more of a statement on taxes than education.

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Jim Miller
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Perhaps there is a message in there.
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