Western Slope Counties Crush Education Funding Measures

Aspen —The obvious take on this year’s midterms is that Colorado voters are tired of paying for public schools. That narrative ignores what actually happened on the Western Slope.

Voters in Pitkin, Garfield, Eagle, Summit, and Routt counties didn’t just approve education funding. They crushed it.

Pitkin County voted 71% in favor of Proposition NN. That is a landslide, not a squeaker. The Vail Daily reported that this measure allows the state to retain and spend money above the Colorado Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) cap. It passed with more than 56% of the statewide vote, according to the Colorado Secretary of State.

Read that again. The state can now withhold up to $4.6 billion in TABOR refunds each year.

The "Yes for Colorado Kids" campaign argued this would increase state K-12 funding by up to 50% over the next decade. The official math says it will increase funding by 2% annually for ten years, after which the education-specific spending requirements expire. The campaign wants a massive jump. The law guarantees a steady drip. Both agree on one thing: the current funding model is broken.

This was the first of four attempts to retain more revenue under or above the TABOR cap to gain approval in at least seven years. Three previous attempts failed. The high-altitude counties broke the streak.

The Tax Trade-Off

Proposition NN wasn’t the only win. Amendment 87 passed with 51% of the vote. It replaces Colorado’s flat 4.4% state income tax with a graduated rate structure.

The ballot language promises to generate more than $2 billion for the state government to spend on K-12 public schools, early childcare, and education services. It lowers taxes for the majority of Coloradans and raises them for top earners.

Support for Amendment 87 in the valley was weaker than for Proposition NN, but still solid. Garfield, Eagle, Summit, Routt, and Pitkin counties all cast majority "yes" votes.

Contrast that with the rest of the state. Voters in Moffat, Rio Blanco, Mesa, and Grand counties voted against Proposition NN. The Vail Daily noted that voters in most rural eastern counties also rejected it.

The split is stark. The high-altitude, tourist-heavy counties on the western edge of the state said yes to higher taxes for better schools. The flatter, oil-and-gas-influenced counties said no.

Local property tax increases also appeared on ballots in several districts, working together to secure more competitive wages for educators. The Vail Daily noted that attempts to increase budgets didn’t stop at the state level.

Officials aren’t saying how much of that $4.6 billion will actually reach a classroom in Aspen or Eagle. They aren’t saying how the 2% annual increase will be distributed among districts with different cost-of-living realities. They are celebrating the passage of the measures.

The money is coming. The question is whether it will fix the staffing shortages or just inflate the budget line items.

For now, the Western Slope voted its hand. The rest of Colorado is still deciding if it wants to follow.