By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
A variety of topics will confront Denver voters on the November ballot, decisions which could shape the future of Colorado’s capitol city.
Voters will be asked about whether to allow illegal immigrants to serve in the fire and police departments, to weigh-in on a pair of bans related to animal fur and livestock slaughter, collective bargaining, tax increases and a nearly $1 billion bond package for Denver schools. That’s all before Denver voters consider statewide measures on the ballot.
Following is a brief look at each ballot item with links to the full ballot measure text provided, when available. The descriptor may not end up being the ballot title:
- Affordable housing funding: The measure would, if passed, increase the local sales tax rate by 0.5% to fund affordable housing and related housing support services citywide. The aim is to generate $100 million from the tax increase annually. Funds could be used for a variety of activities related to “affordable housing”, including administrative costs.
- Collective bargaining: Would expand collective bargaining as the means for setting compensation and other terms of employment, including some benefits, for non-supervisory City of Denver employees. The measure would result in almost all employees, including City Council, having collective bargaining rights.
- Denver Health funding: If passed, the City of Denver sales and use tax would be increased by 0.34% to raise $70 million annually to support “certain services” of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority. “On average, Denver Health has absorbed approximately $100 million in each of the last two (2) years for uncompensated care being provided to Denver residents, and that figure is projected to rise to $124 million in 2025,” the measure detail reads. The tax would help cover those costs.
- Denver Public Schools bond: The $975 million bond proposal would include $301 million for critical maintenance, $240 million for air conditioning, $127 million for arts, athletics and “innovation”, $124 for new facilities, $100 million for “learning environments” and $83 million for safety and technology for the district’s 154 buildings.
- Department of Human Rights: The measure would elevate the Department of Human Rights to a charter agency and add its executive director to the mayor’s cabinet, giving it more influence and autonomy.
- Downtown Denver Development Authority: The measure asks to take on $570 million in debt with a total repayment not to exceed $847 million for use by the Downtown Denver Development Authority. The purpose of the funding would be to finance costs of public facility and other improvements, infrastructure, and improvements to public or private property.
- Firefighters collective bargaining: The charter would be amended, if passed, to allow for binding arbitration for firefighters when an impasse occurs during collective bargaining.
- Fur ban: Would ban the display, distribution, manufacture, and sale or trade of “certain” animal fur products. Animals slaughtered for their fur “endure tremendous suffering” and the “demand for fur products does not justify the unnecessary killing and cruel treatment of animals”, the ballot item reads. This item was put forward by the same residents as the slaughterhouse ban.
- Regional Transportation District (RTD): A measure allowing RTD to be permanently exempt from TABOR limitations, enabling the agency to retain more of its revenue.
- Removing citizenship requirement for police and firefighters: If passed, firefighters and police officers would not be required to be U.S. citizens in order to serve in the City of Denver.
- Salaries of elected officials: Would remove the requirement from the city charter that elected official salaries must be voted on every four years and to set salary structuring by ordinance. Future adjustments would be the lesser of either the CPI increase in the Denver Metro area or the cumulative percentage change for Career Service Denver employees.
- Slaughterhouse ban: Would prohibit slaughterhouses in the city limits and beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the construction, maintenance or use of existing slaughterhouses. The ballot item terms slaughterhouses “nuisances” and cites their “foul odors” and “unsightly industrial facades”. The item also cites “climate change” as a reason to abandon slaughterhouses.
Editor’s note: Heidi Ganahl contributed to this report.