Colorado voters face a choice Tuesday on whether to raise taxes on recreational marijuana to fund a new state program aimed at providing Colorado students with out-of-school learning opportunities and developmental support.
The measure needs a simple majority to become law. Check this page after polls close at 7 p.m. for results.
Supporters of the measure, called Proposition 119, say that the program would give kids from lower income families a chance to access tutoring and enrichment programs, helping those kids catch up academically to more privileged peers and start to regain ground they lost during the pandemic.
The measure enjoys bipartisan support, including from high-profile Colorado Democrats like Gov. Jared Polis, former Gov. Bill Ritter, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall and state Sen. Rhonda Fields. Republican former Gov. Bill Owens is a supporter, as is GOP state Sen. Bob Gardner, of Colorado Springs.
“The hours our children spend after school are a critical time, and Proposition 119 will allow more kids to benefit from after-school learning activities — from tutoring to music and art,” Polis said in a statement.
But the measure has also faced bipartisan opposition. State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Douglas County Republican, co-authored an opinion piece in The Gazette opposing the measure.
Also against the measure is Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who said in a statement that the measure “diverts new marijuana tax revenue from appropriate uses, shifts limited state funds from our public K-12 schools and it lacks robust oversight and accountability.”
Some public education advocates see it as a slippery slope to a voucher system and a threat to public education in the state. Any new tax revenue for education, they argue, should go into the existing system rather than a whole new program. There are also opponents in the cannabis industry who say the increased sales tax punishes those least able to pay and could push consumers back into the black market.
The program would largely be paid for by raising recreational marijuana taxes by 5 percentage points, to 20% from 15%, phased in over three years. Non-partisan legislative staff estimate the new taxes would raise more than $87 million next fiscal year, and the new revenue would be exempt from state constitutional spending limits.
Gary Community Investment Company, which is led by Democratic former state Sen. Mike Johnston, has bankrolled the Yes on Prop. 119 committee, donating more than $2.2 million to support the measure, with nearly $780,000 of that coming since Oct. 20.
The issue committee raised $2.6 million and spent $2.4 million through Oct. 27, which doesn’t include another $250,000 Gary Community Investment Company donated on Oct. 28. Ready Colorado, a conservative education reform nonprofit, donated $525,000 to the issue committee.
Yes on Prop. 119 spent $400,000 on TV ads through Oct. 27. Nonprofit group Colorado Succeeds, funded by a variety of other nonprofits, spent at least $196,000 on TV ads supporting the ballot measure. The Yes on Prop. 119 campaign also spent $149,000 on Facebook ads through Oct. 30.
The opposition to 119 has not been as well financed.
The Cannabis Community for Fairness and Safety, an issue committee that opposes the ballot measure, received $25,000 each from the Marijuana Industry Association and The Green Solution. The committee spent nearly $31,000 on a website, advertising and flyers.
No on Prop 119 reported spending only $7,500, all of it on a website, which came via an in-kind contribution from Coloradans Against School Vouchers. The national Working Families Organization donated more than $5,100 in texting services last week to Coloradans Against School Vouchers’ fight against 119.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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