We’ve quite the crop of ballot proposals this year. I just received the family’s state ballot guide, which gave me a first thorough look at them. I’ll be interesting to see which are snoozers, which get a lot of ad spending, and how the voting on them will go.
One thing of note is that there aren’t any real Culture War issues on here. Not even any Personhood Laws (a rare treat). That’s kind of nice for a change.
Anyway, here’s my first pass, after reading the summaries, the pros/cons, etc. I’ll revisit this before the actual election, when various wiser heads have analyzed them more closely.
These three Constitutional Amendments, proposed by the Legislature, require a 55% supermajority to pass:
Amendment D – New 23rd Judicial District Judges
YES
So we have an new judicial district in the state, but the mechanism for putting judges on it seems a bit sketchy. This solve that by actually defining a clear process. The arguments against seem kind of vague.
Amendment E – Extend Homestead Exemption to Gold Star Spouses
YES
Currently, if you are over 65 and have been in your house for 10+ years or vets with a service-related total disability, you (or your surviving spouse) can claim a partial exemption on your property. This adds surviving spouses of service members killed in the line of duty or of vets whose death results from a service-related injury or disease.
While I think sometimes we go a bit nuts over supporting vets (“Wanna teach in school with no training? No problem!” as they say in Florida), this seems a reasonable thing to do.
The arguments against are basically that it doesn’t help everyone and it might help someone who doesn’t need it. Neither argument is convincing.
Amendment F – Changes to Charitable Gaming Operations
NO
Didn’t we just fend something like this off an election or two ago? This would basically drop the age of non-profits able to run bingo or raffles from five years to three years, and let them hire paid workers to run the games.
The basic result would be more profit-making operations in-state “helping” non-profits run these games. I don’t think we need that.
The following two statutory amendments were proposed by the Legislature and require a simple majority to pass:
Proposition FF – Healthy School Meals for All
YES
Rather than operating a bureaucracy of tracking which kids get free lunches and which don’t, and stigmatizing those who do as the poor kids, and letting families on the edge of eligibility rack up lunch costs … why not just make lunch available to everyone? Makes sense to me.
The arguments against are basically that families with income over $300K shouldn’t have to pay more taxes, especially for meals for freeloading middle-classers, and shouldn’t we just give more money to schools instead of doing this? (Worth noting the people making these arguments never argue in favor of more money to schools when those ballot propositions come up.) None of that sways me from the good this will do.
Proposition GG – Add Tax Info Table to Petitions and Ballots
NO
Every election, we get a nice thick booklet about all the ballot propositions that includes tables with tax impacts. This proposal would add those tables both to petitions (which might make sense) and the ballots. Ugh. We don’t need longer ballots, esp. since the goal here is to try to dissuade voters at the last second about all the scary taxes. Bah.
The following six statutory amendments were placed on the ballot by citizen petition and require a simple majority to pass:
Proposition 121 – State Income Tax Rate Reduction
NO
Brought to you by the usual gang of strangle-government-in-its-bed idiots.
Proposition 122 – Access to Natural Psychedelic Substances
Yes?
This is one I’ll want to read up more about. While the arguments about Magic Mushroom Madness aren’t very convincing, neither are the arguments that, hey, it’s natural, therefore safe and groovy for psychiatric treatment.
Tending yes, but tentatively.
Proposition 123 – Dedicate Revenue for Affordable Housing Programs
YES
By and large, esp. with Colorado housing and rental prices climbing so high, I’m inclined to go with this specialty program. That the opposition argues that this will cut into TABOR refunds in the future is an even better argument for it.
Proposition 124 – Increase Allowable Liquor Store Locations
NO
The first of three ballots over Colorado’s commercial normalization over alcohol and transition away from the old Blue Laws. This one accelerates / expands the ability of retail liquor stores to own more locations, ostensibly in competition with supermarkets. That’s only likely to help bigger chains, though, and I tend to think the transition process that was established previously is just fine. (I could be argued around on this one, but that’s my first impression, at least.)
Proposition 125 – Allow Grocery and Convenience Stores to Sell Wine
No?
I’ve been going back and forth on this one, honestly. On the one hand, convenience! On the other hand, not sure I want more of my grocery store dedicated to wine space, and the impact on existing liquor stores, large and small, is concerning.
Leaning No, but may change my mind.
Proposition 126 – Third-Party Delivery of Alcoholic Beverages
YES
This does two things. First, it allows for third-party companies (e.g., DoorDash) to delivery alcohol alongside groceries and take-out food and everything else. Second, it permanently allows take-out and delivery of alcohol from bars and restaurants, which was first introduced in the early COVID days and is currently scheduled to end in 2025.
Both of those things seem like good conveniences to me, so I’m a solid Yes.