Colorado voters Tuesday resoundingly defeated an attempt to raise state income and sales taxes to fund education.
With 83 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 103 was going down in flames across the state, with 36 percent in favor to 63.9 percent against.
That was also true in Denver, where the measure was failing 45.7 percent in favor to 54.3 percent against, in nearly complete returns.
Boulder, Pitkin and San Miguel counties appeared to be the only places the measure was passing — by fewer than 400 votes in Pitkin County and by only 54 votes in San Miguel County.
State Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, the face of the Support Our Schools Bright Colorado campaign in favor of the ballot measure, conceded defeat less than an hour after the polls closed.
“It’s clear the people of this state aren’t ready right now to tax themselves to solve this problem,” Heath said to supporters. “But I hope the people of this state will come together and say, ‘We need to make some changes. We need to find a way to finance our education in a different way.’
“If we have accomplished anything, we have set that conversation in motion.”
Heath almost single-handedly led the effort to put the issue on the ballot, drawing only limited support from fellow Democrats and unable to get Gov. John Hickenlooper, the state’s top Democrat and one who pledged to remain neutral, on board.
Heath personally gathered signatures and donated $10,000 of his own money to the campaign. Supporters raised more than $600,000 in the effort to pass 103, while opponents raised less than one-tenth of that.
“The voters of Colorado have spoken loud and clear that this is a measure that would have killed jobs,” said former state Rep. Victor Mitchell, R-Castle Rock, who led the Save Colorado Jobs campaign.
Meanwhile, opponents with the Too Taxing for Colorado campaign rejoiced at a Littleton brewery.
“We’re thrilled that the voters of Colorado are coming together and viewing this the same way we did,” said Regina Thomson, the group’s executive director. “For taxpayers to have increased taxes on both their sales tax and income tax is just not fair. Few people can afford it, as it would stifle Colorado’s recovery.”
Under Proposition 103, the state’s current income-tax rate of 4.63 percent for households and businesses would have been raised — for five years — to 5 percent. That’s where it was in 1987, when state lawmakers ditched a graduated income tax in favor of the 5 percent flat rate, which was ultimately reduced to 4.63 percent in 2000.
Meanwhile, 103 also would have — for five years — raised the state’s 2.9 percent sales tax to 3 percent, the level it was at until lawmakers cut it in 2000.
Both tax hikes together would have provided an estimated $2.9 billion over the five-year span.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
