Local ballot measures, Colorado

Tuesday's election features 217 measures across four states, including nearly $1 billion in requested bond money and a proposed ban on funding nuclear weapon production Mar 29, 2013 a Colorado a Florida a Missouri a Wisconsin By Josh Altic With 217 measures on the ballots throughout cites, counties and school district across Colorado, Florida, Missouri and Wisconsin, local voters are all set to make big changes in their communities on issues ranging from term limits and salaries of local officials and school bonds and taxes to corporate free speech and prohibiting nuclear weapon production financing. Throughout Missouri and Wisconsin there are 78 bond measures requesting a total of $941,768,000 in bond money, $852,970,000 of which is being requested by local school districts. Also in Missouri, Kansas City voters have the chance to prohibit the city government from financing or offering any incentives to the Honeywell nuclear weapon plant, which provides 80% of the components for U.S. nuclear weapon production. In Colorado, there is an effort to increase the salaries of city commissioners in the City of Colorado Springs. This is, according to supporters of the measure, the only way to get young and low-income people to become active in government and thus provide proper representation of the residents. And in Wisconsin, two cities join the growing movement of local voters requesting country-wide limitations of corporate free speech and campaign donation rights through a constitutional amendment. To see all of the 2013 local ballot measure elections covered by Ballotpedia follow this page throughout the year. Below is a break down of the April 2, 2013 elections in each state. ...more local news School bond and tax votes See also: School bond and tax elections in Colorado Colorado has two different types of ballot measures that are required under two different laws. The first is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights from 1992, which became Section 20 of Article 10 of the Colorado Constitution. Under TABOR, local voter approval is required if the school district wants to exceed its tax levy above the normal rate of inflation set by the consumer price index. The second law is the School Finance Act of 1994. Under the act, voter approval is required when a school district wants to exceed the limit for raising its Total Program Budget. The Total Program Budget is a combined budget that includes the district's general fund, special education and other costs. A school district that wants to exceed the previous year's Total Program Budget by more than 125% must put a plan before the voters. This type of ballot measure has rarely been used; it is considered to be a last resort option. Colorado law imposes limits on when school districts can hold special elections. Colorado only allows special elections in even numbered years on pre-established general and primary election days in May and November. In odd-numbered years, special school district elections can only occur on the first Tuesday in November. School districts that want to exceed their TABOR limit can sometimes combine this request with a city TABOR request.

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