The group Colorado for Kids turned in 165,706 signatures on August 5, nearly twice the required 86,105 to get the initiative on the ballot this fall. The Secretary of State’s office then began verifying a random sample of the signatures, as required by statute. According to that statute – Section 1-40-116(4), C.R.S. –if between 90 and 110 percent of the signatures in the random sample are verified then the proposal may move forward.
The signatures gathered for Initiative 22 may not all be legitimate. Friday, the Secretary of State’s office announced that the verification process would now require a line-by-line review.
The group Colorado for Kids turned in 165,706 signatures on August 5, nearly twice the required 86,105 to get the initiative on the ballot this fall. The Secretary of State’s office then began verifying a random sample of the signatures, as required by statute. According to that statute – Section 1-40-116(4), C.R.S. –if between 90 and 110 percent of the signatures in the random sample are verified then the proposal may move forward.
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As kids head back to school, the effort to get a mega tax hike on the ballot this November moved forward. The group Colorado for Kids turned in nearly double the required signatures last week for what has been called Initiative 22. The amount of signatures may be partially due to the misinformation (or full-blown lies) the paid canvassers used to gather signatures. Check out this video from Revealing Politics.
SB 213 has completed its journey through the General Assembly and awaits Governor John Hickenlooper’s signature. Democrats are claiming victory for this “once in a lifetime” piece of legislation, but they shouldn’t be celebrating just yet.
Come November, Colorado voters will then decide if they want to pay for this very expensive bill with a $1 billion income tax increase. Yesterday, Colorado Peak Politics ran a stor about a new survey from Magellan Strategies that shows Coloradans don’t want their taxes going up, certainly not to pay for more government or SB 213. After three days of hearings in the Senate Education Committee, SB 213 passed on a 5-4 vote and will move on to the full Colorado State Senate. The bill, an overhaul of the Public School Finance Act of 1994, is sponsored by Sen. Mike Johnston (D-Denver) and Sen. Rollie Heath (D-Boulder) and relies heavily on a $1 billion tax increase that voters will decide on come November.
Tomorrow is Election Day and across the country, states have various ballot issues regarding increases in public K-12 education funding. The most common way to finance these increases is by raising property taxes. Which raises the questions, where all the money is going and why do public schools need more of it? According to a recent report by The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice (read more here) much of that money is going to support a “tremendous growth in employment.”
Colorado isn't the only state that has ballot initiatives regarding tax increases for education funding this year. In fact, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article (read more here) this year marks the “largest number of education tax initiatives to appear on state election ballots in two decades.” Although only a few of Colorado’s school districts are asking tax payers for more money, Arizona, Missouri, South Dakota, California and Oregon have state-wide ballot initiatives, all asking for more education funding.
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Devan CreanI graduated from the University of Denver with a B.A. in History (minor in Political Science) and the University of Wyoming with a Master of Public Administration. I am an experienced copywriter and content manager. I am also a former intern/research associate for the Education Policy Center at the Independence Institute in Denver, Colorado and have previously blogged for National School Choice Week. |