Two ballot measures: Initiative 300 – a bill to mandate sick days to all Denver based employees – and Proposition 103 – a tax increase slated to support secondary and primary education in Colorado – failed last Tuesday at the ballot box.
The Colorado Constitution prohibits lawmakers from increasing taxes without voter consent.
Proposition 103 asked voters to raise the corporate tax rate from 4.63 percent to 5 percent and change the sales tax from 2.9 percent to 3 percent for fiscal years 2012 through 2016 to make up for the budget cuts to public schools.
Proposition 103 failed by a margin of nearly 2:1, with 622,000 people voting against the tax rate change, while 356,000 voted in favor of the measure.
With an increase of 7 percent in enrollment of primary and secondary education, coupled with a 20 percent surge in enrollment to public higher education institutions, the state will be cutting money from an already marginalized system. The budget for schools will be cut by $97 million and funding to public universities and colleges will be cut by $76 million under Governor Hickenlooper’s advice.
“There’s going to be serious resistance to almost all the cuts,” Hickenlooper said in a press briefing last Tuesday. He did not comment on his position for Proposition 103.
This will be the third year in a row that public schools will see heavy cuts.
Initiative 300 was supported by a diverse group of DU professors ranging from the chair of economics department, Tract Mott, to the chair of the Management program at the Daniels School of Business, Dennis Wittmer. Overall, 10 DU professors signed an open letter to the local Chamber of Commerce supporting the economic, business and personal benefits of mandatory sick days.
Initiative 300 gained national attention with over $800,000 funneled in from conservative, pro-business organizations against the measure, while over $400,000 from unions and women’s organization was donated to support the measure. Denver voters rejected the measure with a margin of nearly 2:1, with 66,000 voting against the measure and 37,000 voting for it.
“Initiative 300 would have provided a critical public health safeguard for Denver, which is why the Colorado Public Health Association supported this initiative,” said Kyle Legleiter, president of the Colorado Public Health Association. “When workers don’t have paid sick days, it affects all of us. That’s because workers without paid sick days face an impossible choice when illness strikes: risk their economic security by staying home or risk their health and the public’s health by going to work.”
Cities such as San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Milwaukee and Washington D.C. already mandate sick days for employees. Colorado, however, has voted down the similar initiatives.
