Denver Ballot Is Loaded
Voters Being Asked For .66% Worth Of Sales Tax Increases
By Cara DeGette
GPHN Editor
In addition to the statewide ballot questions, Denver voters will be asked in November to increase the sales tax for four different programs, including for parks, a college scholarships program, for mental health services and a program to promote healthy eating.
Denver’s city sales tax is currently 3.65 percent. With additional sales taxes, people buying goods and services in Denver currently pay 7.65 percent tax. If all the proposed tax increases pass, that figure would jump to 4.31 percent – or to a total of 8.31 percent.
Local voters will also be asked to approve a property tax increase of about $2 for every $100,000 worth of property to establish an urban drainage and flood control district. Several other non-tax items will be decided. The following are on the Denver ballot:
• Measure 2A: Parks, Trails, and Open Space Tax – Would increase the sales tax by .25 percent (25 cents per $100 purchase) for $46 million a year to buy unspecified parks, trails and open space, develop and maintain new and existing parks, trails and open space, restore waterways, rivers canals and streams and purchase and plant trees.
• Measure 2B: Initiative Requirements: Would change the number of valid signatures required to place an initiative or referendum on the ballot.
• Measure 2C: Police Department Hires – would amend the City Charter to “promote greater flexibility in the hiring of lateral recruits for classified service in the Denver Police Department.”
• Measure 2D: Clerk and Recorder Appointees: Would change the City Charter to allow the Denver Clerk and Recorder to make at-will appointments and eliminate the requirement that the Director of Elections be an at-will appointee.
• Measure 2E: Campaign Finance Public Fund: Would create a fund for public financing of municipal candidates and ban corporations from donating directly to municipal candidates.
• Ordinance 300: Denver College Affordability Fund: This measure would increase the sales tax by .08 percent (8 cents per $100 purchase) for nearly $14 million a year for a college scholarship program for Denver residents.
• Ordinance 301: Caring 4 Denver Tax: Would increase the sales tax by .25 percent (25 cents per $100 purchase) to raise $46 million per year for mental health services and substance abuse programs for adults and children.
• Ordinance 302: Healthy Food for Denver’s Kids Tax: Would increase the sales tax by .08 percent (8 cents per $100 purchase) to raise $11.2 million a year to establish a Denver Food Commission that would provide low-income children with healthy food and food-based education.
• Issue 7G: Urban Drainage and Flood Control District: Would increase property taxes by nearly $2 per $100,000 worth of property to raise nearly $15 million for an urban drainage and flood control district.