Colorado
Education spending advocates yesterday announced that they will push for a 2011 ballot initiative that would create a steady funding source for P-20 education. The group attempted to persuade lawmakers this year to refer the question to voters, but the measure failed. Great Futures Colorado says a new report by the Colorado School Finance Project indicates that schools throughout the state are resorting to cost-cutting measures that will have a “significant and lasting impact on students and families.”
Here’s a great piece in the Denver Westward News by Alan Prendergast about the struggle for citizen initiative rights, and the activisits who work to keep the initiative and referendum process open & accessible to everyone:
In Paul Grant’s experience, few things are as costly as free speech. It must be paid for again and again.
Colorado residents will not vote on a proposed ballot initiative involving grocery store liquor sales this November after the Denver attorney who wrote the measure said Tuesday that he will not attempt to gather the signatures necessary to move ahead with the measure.
Aurora is one of the first cities in Colorado to move forward with a potential ballot initiative this November. A new statewide law allows for ballot language that could ask voters whether they want to prohibit the operation of medical marijuana centers, grow operations, and manufacturers’ licenses for medical marijuana-infused products. The city won’t include language about location of dispensaries and other restrictions, according to city attorney Charlie Richardson.
This November, voters in Denver will decide whether to create a seven-member Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission “to help ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles.”
City Council is scheduled to have a two-hour briefing and discussion Monday evening on three far-reaching state ballot initiatives that would require sharp cuts in the property taxes that support public schools while also curtailing the ability of state and local governments to issue bonds for capital construction projects.
U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer on Friday put a temporary hold on part of a controversial 2009 bill restricting, among other things, how and when voters can be asked to sign a petition. You can read the judge’s order here.
Dozens of existing medical marijuana dispensaries could be outlawed in Colorado Springs, and the mayor would have sweeping powers, including the authority to lower taxes, under two separate proposals making their way to the ballot. The effort to ban pot shops involves a man who says his two daughters died because of drug use. The proposal for a mayor with a wide range of powers involves anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce.
Conservative activists asked a federal judge Wednesday to overturn a state law on ballot petitions. U.S. District Judge Phillip Brimmer isn’t likely to rule until Friday at the earliest. Each passing day makes it harder for Jon Caldara to gather signatures for his ballot initiative to overturn the federal health-care reform law in Colorado.
Colorado’s constitution guarantees all stat citizens the power of initiative “as to all local, special, and municipal legislation of every character in of for their respective municipalities.” One restriction on this is that initiatives must be “legislative,” not “administrative.” Any initiative that is deemed “administrative” cannot be certified for the ballot.
Sponsors of a bill signed into law Tuesday say the new restrictions on ballot initiative backers could prevent future tangles like those surrounding a series of anti-tax measures before voters this November. House Bill 1370 requires that issue committees, the term for groups backing initiatives, register with the state and begin disclosing financial information as soon as they print and distribute 200 petitions. Current rules require these groups to register only after they raise or spend $200, a threshold that can be harder to gauge, according to bill co-sponsor Sen.
You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you could let that dog off-leash and give it a try in a Denver park under a citizen initiative that’s up for review tomorrow. An initiative being proposed by Ronald “Byron” Williams would allow dogs to be off-leash in certain parts of almost all Denver parks from 5-9 a.m.
It doesn’t matter what you think of the process by which Coloradans put laws and constitutional amendments on the ballot. In this state, it’s a basic right protected in the state constitution. Lawmakers didn’t create that right and they can’t take it away.
Aspen voters will be asked in November to approve increasing the current lodging tax by 1 percent to support marketing and special events for the resort. The Aspen Chamber Resort Association and Aspen Lodging Association asked the Aspen City Council on Monday night to approve including the measure on the upcoming ballot. “This is an opportunity for the people of Aspen to stand behind the notion of a sustainable tourism economy,” Mayor Mick Ireland said. “It is an opportunity for the community to cast a yes vote for the future.”
Of the 45 states whose legislatures hold sessions in 2010, 27 of them have adjourned for the year, and 5 more will wrap up before the end of the month. Of the more than 80 bills dealing with the initiative and referendum process in various states, 51 of them would have reduced citizens’ initiative rights. Thanks to the work of activists in our coalitions, only 3 bills reducing citizen’s rights have passed and become law.