It looks like Coloradans will be voting in November on whether to increase taxes for Colorado public schools.
Friday was the deadline to file ballot proposals for the November, and almost all of them deal with funding for Colorado public schools.
The measures are available online.
Many of the ballot measures are in response to Senate Bill 213 by Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, which overhauls the school finance structure. The only way that some changes could be instituted, though, is if voters in November approve a tax increase that could amount to $1 billion annually.
That bill has been amended to deal with concerns raised by school districts in Durango and elsewhere, according to the Durango Herald.
One of the hearings on the bill has inspired a video from the conservative group Revealing Politics, after Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Evie Hudak, a Democrat, told Sen. Owen Hill, a Republican, to “flip a coin” to determine how he was going to vote on an amendment. He wanted more time.
Two of the ballot measures were filed by a member of the Tea Party but it’s unclear if they are supposed to be serious. One measures deals with the Public Employees Retirement Association or PERA, which is called PREA in one section of the ballot proposal.
Ballot proposals are filed with the nonpartisan Legislative Council, the first in many steps of getting an issue on the ballot. The November election is limited to state issues involving taxes, revenues and debt, for the most part, because it is an off year.