Friday, October 12, 2018

Ballot Clutter

The Blue Book just arrived. Voters are staring at 65 pages of small print and very legalistic language (plus more – 15 pages of material on judges).

Colorado leaders were hoping that the newly adopted Amendment 71 would constrain the flow of initiatives, but the ballot is as cluttered as it often has been in recent years with statutory and even hard to pass constitutional amendments, some of which, like TABOR in 1992 or Amendment 23 in 2000, will have a major revenue impact. This year’s revenue initiatives are in reverse of TABOR as they will commit Colorado to producing billions of dollars of new tax revenue every year for roads and schools.

The following are the 2018 proposals with some brief comments on the more talked about items.

The legislature placed several measures on the ballot, all constitutional amendments:
  • A – Repeals slavery language (second effort)
  • U – Lowers age for legislature from 25 to 21 (Do people like Millennials?)
  • W – Language on judicial retention
  • X – Hemp (statutory definition)
  • Y – Congressional redistricting (could have major impact on Colorado’s current delegation and new seat in 2022)
  • Z – State Legislature redistricting (changes in 2022 could affect party control)
Citizen initiatives (“C” for constitutional, “SS” for statutory)
  • 73 C – Taxes and education ($1.6 billion. A lot of union money in the campaign.)
  • 74 C – Takings (Oil and gas industry favor. But local government argue litigious and expensive for taxpayers.)
  • 75 C – Campaign finance (The Polis amendment. If billionaire runs, it offers a little help for underdog.)
  • 109 SS – Fix Our Damn roads (Does Jon Caldara get a win?)
  • 110 SS – Taxes for roads (Governor, Chambers and businesses all in with massive TV campaign. Holding at about 50% in private polls.)
  • 111 SS – Payday loans – 36% cap
  • 112 SS – Fracking limits (If it wins, expect major economic impact and possible backlash in next election cycle)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I will vote for A as it removes words.
No, on all the others as they add words.
Our state constitution has too many words.

No on all the initiatives.

Thanks for the post. Saved me from reading the Blue Book.

Dave Barnes said...

"U – Lowers age"
Nope, V