The ‘Stay At Home’ and ‘social distancing’ orders laid down by Colorado Governor Jared Polis, during the COVID-19 crisis, have set up hurdles for citizen activists hoping to petition measures into the November 2020 ballot.
Perhaps, rather than ‘hurdles’ … a better term would be ‘roadblocks.’
A few months back, it looked like 2020 was going to be a big year for citizen-led democracy in Colorado, with dozens of initiatives hoping to land on the November ballot. But COVID-19 and the governor’s mandatory ‘Stay At Home’ orders have thrown a monkey wrench into our normal petition processes.
Proponents of statewide initiatives normally have six months to collect in-person signatures, but the Colorado Constitution requires all petitions be filed at least three months before an election, which puts this year’s deadline on August 3. Groups starting their petition campaigns following the termination of the Governor’s social distancing orders will find themselves with barely three months to collect signatures. Maybe less, depending upon any further extensions of the social distancing rules.
Late last year, I met up with a couple of fellow Pagosa activists — Glenn Walsh and Greg Giehl — to discuss possible ways to mitigate a November 2019 decision by the Pagosa Springs Town Council. That decision had created a new layer of municipal government: the Pagosa Springs Urban Renewal Authority (URA).
The three of us were not happy with the Council’s controversial decision — a 4-3 vote, with Council members Mat deGraaf, David Schanzenbaker and Matt DeGuise voting ‘nay’ and Council members Don Volger, Tracy Bunning, Nicole DeMarco and Maddie Bergon voting ‘aye’. You can read more about that decision in this Daily Post editorial series. The Council was compelled to hold a vote on the URA issue, due to a petition circulated by developer Jack Searle, the owner of 27 vacant acres just south of the Spring Resort. In order to bring about a Council “URA” vote under Colorado law, Mr. Searle was required to submit a petition including 25 signatures from Town voters.
The Council had been rather aggressively lobbied on the URA issue by Texas-based developer David Dronet, representing the Springs Resort. Mr. Dronet’s consultants proposed that the Springs Resort should be granted up to $79 million in tax refunds, via a ‘Tax Increment Financing’ (‘TIF’) scheme, to facilitate a $180 million resort development on Mr. Searle’s property.
Glenn, Greg and I waited to see if the seven-person Town Council would provide extensive community representation on the newly-formed URA commission, but the Council chose not to provide expanded representation — instead appointing themselves as the representative majority on the commission.
Fortunately for Pagosa residents, the Town operates under a voter-approved Home Rule Charter, and the charter allows the town voters to make amendments to the charter. We felt pretty sure the town electors would like to have the right to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ on a $79 million tax giveaway to wealthy developers, so we set out to circulate a petition, proposing just such an amendment. Following the submission of a letter of intent, we received permission for Town Clerk April Hessman to circulate our petition, asking to put the following Home Rule Charter amendment before the town voters at a special election in mid-July:
Any proposal by the Town Council or by the Pagosa Springs Urban Renewal Authority to use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) must first be approved by the Town electors whenever the total TIF revenues are expected to exceed $1 million ($1,000,000) over the life of the project.
Starting on February 22, Greg, Glenn and I knocked on practically every door in within the boundaries of Pagosa Springs and managed to collect the 117 valid signatures necessary to place the ballot measure before the voters. (We actually collected 172 signatures.) As I wrote in a previous editorial, the people we met were overwhelmingly welcoming and friendly; we were often invited inside their homes to discuss our petition — even though the novel coronavirus was already in the news.
If we had started the petition drive even two weeks later than we did, we might well have failed to collect the necessary signatures. I knocked on my last door on March 22. On March 26, Governor Polis issued his first ‘Stay At Home’ order.
Only Town electors will be allowed to vote on the issue. (Folks living in the unincorporated county are denied the right to vote in Town elections.)
Not every group planning to circulate petitions in Colorado was as fortunate with their timing.
Proposed statewide initiatives must collect signatures totaling at least 5 percent of the total votes cast for various Secretary of State candidates in the previous general election — so, 124,632 signatures for 2020 initiatives. Signature requirements for proposed constitutional changes are even more challenging.
Only three initiatives made it successfully onto the ballot before Colorado’s ‘Stay At Home’ and social distancing regulations kicked in; one seeks to reintroduce gray wolves in Colorado; another would repeal Colorado’s support for the ‘National Popular Vote’; the third would reiterate that only citizens may vote.
One coalition that initially proposed a complete repeal of the TABOR amendment, changed direction months ago and is instead proposing to tweak Colorado income taxes to make the wealthy pay a higher percentage, and thereby generate billions in additional revenues for the state government. The initiative would lower the current 4.63% tax rate for households making less than $250,000 a year.
From a March 4 article in the the Colorado Sun:
An estimated 95% of taxpayers who are below the threshold would qualify for a tax cut, which would take effect for 2021. For those who make more than $250,000, the additional earnings are taxed at a higher rate up to the maximum of 8.9% for annual taxable income over $1 million.
That campaign has been hosting educational webinars and mailing petitions to canvassers to get them ready to collect signatures… when it’s ‘safe’ again.
‘When it’s safe again’… well… that’s something no one can predict, at this point.