‘BLUE BOOK’ BUD’S SHORT VERSION

 

Amendment B  NO

Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR20-001 – Repeal Property Tax Assessment Rates

Referred to the voters by the state legislature

Without increasing property tax rates, to help preserve funding for local districts that provide fire protection, police, ambulance, hospital, kindergarten through twelfth grade education, and other services, and to avoid automatic mill levy increases, shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution to repeal the requirement that the general assembly periodically change the residential assessment rate in order to maintain the statewide proportion of residential property as compared to all other taxable property valued for property tax purposes and repeal the nonresidential property tax assessment rate of twenty-nine percent?

COMMENT:  Repealing ‘Gallagher’ leaves assessment rates in the legislature?  ‘Gallagher’ and TABOR were enacted to help control the lust of Legislature for more of your money and LIBERTY

Amendment C  YES

House Concurrent Resolution HCR20-1001 – Bingo Raffles Allow Paid Help and Repeal Five-Year Minimum

Referred to the voters by the state legislature

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the conduct of charitable gaming activities, and, in connection therewith, allowing bingo-raffle licensees to hire managers and operators of games and reducing the required period of a charitable organization’s continuous existence before obtaining a charitable gaming license?

COMMENT:  Lowers regulation on charities, improves their LIBERTY

Amendment 76  YES

Initiative #76 – Citizenship Qualification of Electors

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution requiring that to be qualified to vote at any election an individual must be a United States citizen?

COMMENT:  Changes CO constitutional language from ‘Every citizen…’ to ‘Only a citizen…’

 

 

 

Amendment 77  NO

Initiative #257 – Local Voter Approval of Gaming Limits in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution and a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes concerning voter-approved changes to limited gaming, and, in connection therewith, allowing the voters of Central City, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek, for their individual cities, to approve other games in addition to those currently allowed and increase a maximum single bet to any amount; and allowing gaming tax revenue to be used for support services to improve student retention and credential completion by students enrolled in community colleges?

COMMENT:  Imposes additional taxes, regulation, and bureauracracy.  Money may not go to ‘education’.

Proposition EE  NO

House Bill HB20-1427 – Cigarette Tobacco and Nicotine Products Tax

Referred to the voters by the state legislature

SHALL STATE TAXES BE INCREASED BY $294,000,000 ANNUALLY BY IMPOSING A TAX ON NICOTINE LIQUIDS USED IN E-CIGARETTES AND OTHER VAPING PRODUCTS THAT IS EQUAL TO THE TOTAL STATE TAX ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS WHEN FULLY PHASED IN, INCREMENTALLY INCREASING THE TOBACCO PRODUCTS TAX BY UP TO 22% OF THE MANUFACTURER’S LIST PRICE, INCREMENTALLY INCREASING THE CIGARETTE TAX BY UP TO 9 CENTS PER CIGARETTE, EXPANDING THE EXISTING CIGARETTE AND TOBACCO TAXES TO APPLY TO SALES TO CONSUMERS FROM OUTSIDE OF THE STATE, ESTABLISHING A MINIMUM TAX FOR MOIST SNUFF TOBACCO PRODUCTS, CREATING AN INVENTORY TAX THAT APPLIES FOR FUTURE CIGARETTE TAX INCREASES, AND INITIALLY USING THE TAX REVENUE PRIMARILY FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING TO HELP OFFSET REVENUE THAT HAS BEEN LOST AS A RESULT OF THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS RELATED TO COVID-19 AND THEN FOR PROGRAMS THAT REDUCE THE USE OF TOBACCO AND NICOTINE PRODUCTS, ENHANCE THE VOLUNTARY COLORADO PRESCHOOL PROGRAM AND MAKE IT WIDELY AVAILABLE FOR FREE, AND MAINTAIN THE FUNDING FOR PROGRAMS THAT CURRENTLY RECEIVE REVENUE FROM TOBACCO TAXES, WITH THE STATE KEEPING AND SPENDING ALL OF THE NEW TAX REVENUE AS A VOTER-APPROVED REVENUE CHANGE?

COMMENT:  Imposes additional, ever increasing, tax without TABOR vote.  Targets a single industry unfairly.  The revenue probably will not increase total education funding since, in the past, Legislature has reduced general fund appropriation by similar or greater amount.  One goal is to reduce consumption.  That means fewer sales, less sales taxes.  So who will make up yhe difference?  Non-smokers, which means the whole citizenry.

 

 

 

Proposition 113  NO

Senate Bill SB19-042 – National Popular Vote

Shall the following Act of the General Assembly be approved: An Act concerning adoption of an agreement among the states to elect the President of the United States by national popular vote, being Senate Bill No. 19-042?

COMMENT:  This repeals SB19-042 which joined CO to the UNCONSTITUTIONAL ‘National Popular Vote Interstate Compact’ in violation of Article 1, Section 3, Paragraph 3.

Proposition 114  NO

Initiative #107 – Restoration of Grey Wolves

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes concerning the restoration of gray wolves through their reintroduction on designated lands in Colorado located west of the continental divide, and, in connection therewith, requiring the Colorado parks and wildlife commission, after holding statewide hearings and using scientific data, to implement a plan to restore and manage gray wolves; prohibiting the commission from imposing any land, water, or resource use restrictions on private landowners to further the plan; and requiring the commission to fairly compensate owners for losses of livestock caused by gray wolves?

COMMENT:  Wolves already exist in CO.  Since they are migratory, will they stay?  Nothing in the proposal requires the pack to stay in CO.

Proposition 115  YES

Initiative #120 – Prohibition on Late-Term Abortions

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes concerning prohibiting an abortion when the probable gestational age of the fetus is at least twenty-two weeks, and, in connection therewith, making it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine to perform or attempt to perform a prohibited abortion, except when the abortion is immediately required to save the life of the pregnant woman when her life is physically threatened, but not solely by a psychological or emotional condition; defining terms related to the measure including “probable gestational age” and “abortion,” and excepting from the definition of “abortion” medical procedures relating to miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy; specifying that a woman on whom an abortion is performed may not be charged with a crime in relation to a prohibited abortion; and requiring the Colorado medical board to suspend for at least three years the license of a licensee whom the board finds performed or attempted to perform a prohibited abortion?

COMMENT:  Abortion is murder and deprives the baby of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’.  Any that can be saved is a good thing

 

 

 

Proposition 116  YES

Initiative #306 – State Income Tax Rate Reduction

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes reducing the state income tax rate from 4.63% to 4.55%?

COMMENT:  Reducing the legislature’s lust for your money is a good move in the defense of LIBERTY.

Proposition 117  YES

Initiative #295 – Voter Approval Requirement for Creation of Certain Fee-Based Enterprises

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes requiring statewide voter approval at the next even-year election of any newly created or qualified state enterprise that is exempt from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado constitution, if the projected or actual combined revenue from fees and surcharges of the enterprise, and all other enterprises created within the last five years that serve primarily the same purpose, is greater than $100 million within the first five fiscal years of the creation or qualification of the new enterprise?

COMMENT:  Fees and ‘Enterprises’ have been discovered by the Legislature as a way around TABOR.  This attempts to bring some of that back into voter review.

Proposition 118  NO

Initiative #283 – Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes concerning the creation of a paid family and medical leave program in Colorado, and, in connection therewith, authorizing paid family and medical leave for a covered employee who has a serious health condition, is caring for a new child or for a family member with a serious health condition, or has a need for leave related to a family member’s military deployment or for safe leave; establishing a maximum of 12 weeks of family and medical leave, with an additional 4 weeks for pregnancy or childbirth complications, with a cap on the weekly benefit amount; requiring job protection for and prohibiting retaliation against an employee who takes paid family and medical leave; allowing a local government to opt out of the program; permitting employees of such a local government and self-employed individuals to participate in the program; exempting employers who offer an approved private paid family and medical leave plan; to pay for the program, requiring a premium of 0.9% of each employee’s wages, up to a cap, through December 31, 2024, and as set thereafter, up to 1.2% of each employee’s wages, by the director of the division of family and medical leave insurance; authorizing an employer to deduct up to 50% of the premium amount from an employee’s wages and requiring the employer to pay the remainder of the premium, with an exemption for employers with fewer than 10 employees; creating the division of family and medical leave insurance as an enterprise within the department of labor and employment to administer the program; and establishing an enforcement and appeals process for retaliation and denied claims?

COMMENT:  More payroll taxes and regulation and interference in the private market.  Creates more bureaucracy as an ‘enterprise’.