Statewide ballot issues

Amendment G: Vote YES. This measure expands eligibility for the homestead exemption — a property tax deduction — to include disabled veterans who are homeowners and have been rendered unemployable due to their disability. Enough said.

Amendment H: Vote YES. Amendment H is a an overdue reform to our state’s courts. It puts some teeth into the procedure for investigating, reviewing, disciplining and publicly disclosing judicial misconduct. It is a solid first step toward a higher ethical standard for judges in the wake of malfeasance uncovered by The Gazette at the highest level of Colorado’s judiciary.

Amendment I: Vote YES. Amendment I amends the state constitution to restore judges’ ability to deny bail to suspects charged with first-degree murder. That option — long a given in the criminal justice system — was stripped from judges recently on a legal technicality. The state Supreme Court had ruled that the Legislature’s repeal of capital punishment in Colorado meant first-degree murder no longer was a “capital” crime, strictly speaking, and thus policies like denying bail for capital crimes were moot. Let’s plug that loophole.

Amendment J: Vote YES. Whatever your views on same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that states must permit and recognize it under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Amendment J simply removes the Colorado Constitution’s own explicit ban on same-sex marriage, added by the state’s voters in 2006 but nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 landmark ruling.

Amendment K: The Gazette’s editorial board takes no position.

Proposition JJ: Vote NO. JJ removes constitutional taxing and spending limits on revenue collected from the state’s 10% tax on sports betting proceeds. The measure would allow the state to retain and spend all it collects from the tax. While the proposal would require the excess revenue to be used on water projects — a worthy policy priority — it’s hard to justify lifting the limits of Colorado’s prudent Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights for any cause, an entrusting the money to the state, when our fiscally freewheeling Legislature squanders so much of its regular operating budget.

Proposition KK: Vote NO. This steep, 6.5% tax on guns and ammunition is a misfire. A sales tax won’t curb armed criminals — they tend to steal their weapons — and it won’t help crime’s victims. Instead, it will make it all the more difficult for law-abiding citizens of modest means to buy firearms for self-defense. And it creates another slush fund for the Legislature to raid.

Amendment 79: Vote NO. The amendment embeds the unfettered right to an abortion in the state constitution for no apparent reason — other than to require taxpayers to fund the procedure. Colorado already is one of the easiest places in the country to get an abortion. And especially in the wake of the Reproductive Health Equity Act, adopted just two years ago by the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, there’s practically no chance that access to abortion services in this state will be curtailed by policymakers in the foreseeable future. Regardless of your views on abortion, the deluge of dollars flooding in from out of state in support of the 79 campaign — all for a gratuitous amendment to clutter the constitution — gives reason enough to vote NO.

Amendment 80: Vote YES. While there is broad public enthusiasm for charter schools and other forms of school choice among Coloradans — regardless of race or ethnicity, socio-economic status or political allegiance — there remains narrow but influential opposition. And those special interests — like teachers unions, which don’t like the competition — have clout. Their powerful lobby at the State Capitol attempted yet again just last spring to push through legislation that would have undermined charter schools. Amendment 80 would protect such important school-choice options by safeguarding them in the state constitution.

Proposition 127: Vote NO. The disingenuous measure promises to ban the “trophy hunting” of mountain lions and other wildcat species; it is in fact already illegal in Colorado to hunt game merely as trophies. The proposal’s deception doesn’t end there. It implies mountain lions are endangered when they are abundant. It preys upon most voters’ unfamiliarity with hunting — with how it already is strictly and vigorously regulated as a key tool of wildlife management. Its true motive? The proposal — bankrolled by out-of-state interests — appears to be another incremental step in the national animal-rights movement’s campaign to ban all hunting.

Proposition 128: Vote YES. Much of the public may be unaware that most felons sent to prison only serve a fraction of their sentence before being paroled back to the streets — often enough, to commit more crimes. Proposition 128, aptly nicknamed “Truth in Sentencing,” would require the state’s most violent criminals to serve at least 85% of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole. Upon a third trip to prison for violent crimes — a list of offenses is specified in the proposal — inmates would be required to serve out their full sentences before becoming parole eligible. That’s long overdue. It’s not just about making criminals pay their debt to society — a worthy goal in its own right — but also about making our streets safer.

Proposition 129. Vote NO. The proposal has the arguably laudable intent of providing more options for pet owners seeking veterinary care. But this measure goes about it the wrong way. It asks voters to go way beyond their depth and credential a new kind of veterinary professional. That’s an undertaking that should be left to veterinary schools, state regulators and the veterinary profession. Such proposals don’t belong on the ballot in the first place.

Proposition 130. Vote YES. It establishes the Peace Officer Training and Support Fund to provide funding for law enforcement training, retention, and hiring across the state. The fund also will pay a death benefit of $1 million to the surviving spouse, children or estate of any peace officer killed in the line of duty. Now more than ever, Colorado’s law enforcement agencies need this boost in their crime fight — in a state battered by a crime wave.

Proposition 131: Vote NO. This well-intended attempt at making Coloradans’ votes more meaningful in primary and general elections has some compelling features but could wind up backfiring in some scenarios. It also raises more questions than it answers. Add to that mischievous and complicated legislation passed last spring in an attempt to sabotage 131 in advance, and the upshot is to turn the proposal into a minefield. Reform of Colorado’s increasingly problematic primary elections is likely warranted, but through a more straightforward and perhaps less ambitious solution.

Local ballot issues

Denver Ballot Issues 2Q and 2R: Vote NO on each. Both measures would hike taxes in the City and County of Denver — 2Q’s .34% sales tax would help bail out beleaguered Denver Health’s red ink; 2R’s .5% sales tax would raise funds for affordable housing — and make the Mile High City one of Colorado’s most heavily taxed municipalities. Both proposals jump the gun in hounding taxpayers for more money. Seemingly little effort was made to examine the underlying causes of the problems those tax dollars would be spent on, or to be more creative in seeking solutions. And the two proposals together simply raise taxes too high.

Referred Question 2S: Vote NO. It would make the Agency of Human Rights and Community Partnerships a cabinet-level department in the administration of Mayor Mike Johnston. Sounds like bureaucratic empire building — just what Denver City Hall doesn’t need.

Referred Question 2T: Vote NO. Oddly, the measure would eliminate the requirement that Denver police and firefighters be U.S. citizens. As if citizenship is some sort of hurdle to attracting good police and fire candidates. The proposal’s authors on the City Council insist it only would apply to immigrants who now have legal work authorization. But what if they originally entered the country illegally? Particularly when it comes to police work, it flouts the whole premise of wearing a badge if the cop behind it is in Colorado only because he or she broke the law in the first place. There certainly have been foreign-born Denver police officers and firefighters who have served with distinction. But they became U.S. citizens, first.

Referred Question 2U: Vote NO. Collective bargaining for pay and benefits would be granted under 2U to some 7,000 more Denver municipal employees — and it’s bound to be a budget buster just as it has been for the state government. After the Legislature and governor let state employees collectively bargain and hammer out a binding labor contract, the state payroll mushroomed. Why saddle Denver taxpayers with that same burden — and open the city to the potential for crippling strikes by city workers providing wide-ranging city services?

Referred Question 2V: The Gazette’s editorial board takes no position.

Referred Question 2W: Vote NO. The measure would “remove the requirement that City Council vote on elected official salaries every four years prior to the general election…” Instead, periodic raises to council members’ six-digit salaries would be left to ordinance to adjust automatically, based on a formula. In other words, on auto-pilot — flying largely under the radar, where no one will notice. Let’s keep taxpayers in the know — and make the council sweat — by requiring them keep voting on their salaries in public.

Initiated Ordinances 308 and 309: Vote NO. The two measures represent yet another attempt by the fringe of the national animal-rights movement to meddle in Colorado elections and use our ballot as a laboratory for extreme and reckless policies. Initiated Ordinances 308 would ban “the manufacture, distribution, display, sale, or trade” of fur in the city. Initiated Ordinance 309, “prohibiting slaughterhouses” in Denver, would shut down the city’s only meat-processing facility. Both would wreak economic havoc, shuttering businesses, eliminating jobs and depriving artisans of markets for their crafts. The measures also take aim at an economic dynamo and cherished tradition like the National Western Stock Show and even target an American icon — the cowboy hat.

Ballot Issue 4A: Vote NO. Although Denver Public Schools is in need of repairs and upgrades, including air conditioning for a number of older campuses, the rudderless, leaderless school district has failed the public in fundamental ways — and cannot be trusted with the nearly $1 billion it seeks through a bond issue under 4A. It’s a lot of money, but the amount itself isn’t as telling as are the people who are asking for it: The school board’s majority and its superintendent simply have no business running Colorado’s largest school district. They have repeatedly flunked the basic accountability test.

Ballot Issue 6A: The Gazette’s editorial board takes no position.

Ballot Issue 7A: Vote NO. The metro area’s ever-ailing, ever-failing, ever-fumbling Regional Transportation District wants voters to lift state constitutional taxing and spending limits on the district’s revenue. To what end? Among the bullet-pointed promises built into RTD’s ballot pitch are steps like, “providing transportation choices,” and “repairing and improving rail lines, buses, bus stops…” Really. In other words, the workaday kind of stuff they already are supposed to be doing; have been promising to do for decades, and yet, for all of the previous infusions of new money, never have done very well. Give them more, and we’ll just get more of the same. In COVID’s wake, ridership has plummeted. Trains and buses are unkempt and perceived by a lot of the public as crime-ridden. Far more fundamental change is needed.