Each year at the ballot box - or around your kitchen table - our ballot initiative system asks you and your fellow Colorado voters to make decisions about issues of importance to the state's future. Recent examples include Amendment 66, which proposed a change in our state's individual income tax structure to raise resources for K-12 education and failed, and Amendment 64, which passed and legalized adult use recreational marijuana in our state.
Colorado's ballot initiative system is a piece of our state's fabric - and here to stay. Recent statewide polling by Hill Research Consultants shows that 77 percent of likely voters enjoy the right to make decisions through direct democracy. That said, ensuring the procedures required to place a measure before voters through the ballot initiative system are sound - and include transparency, integrity and accountability - is something we believe is critical, and something we can do better.
To that end, Colorado Concern is partnering with Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino and Representative Lois Court to craft legislation that will clarify the role and the responsibilities of individuals who file a statewide ballot measure.
The bill will also call for the inclusion of a preliminary fiscal impact statement on the signature petition utilized to gather support for a proposed measure, providing prospective voters with more information about the increased revenue or costs a measure includes.
Additionally, the legislation will provide incentives for ballot measure proponents who file a statutory measure, instead of a Constitutional Amendment - with the goal of protecting our state's governing document from additional provisions that may be well intentioned, but that cause future generations challenges. The example most often referenced in this area is the Gordian Knot created by embedding tax policy, school funding and property tax formulas in the Constitution.
We will alert you when this measure is introduced, and provide you updates regarding its progress.
If you have questions about this proposal, or any other measure, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
A link to our At a Glance Status Sheet, updated in real-time, is available here.
We look forward to seeing you at our luncheon with the Honorable Mark Udall this Friday, February 14th.
Warmly,
Tamra