Everyone in the energy business is painfully aware of how difficult the economy has been in the last few years. And now, just as Colorado begins to crawl out of the recession, there is a new threat on the horizon. It comes from three dangerous proposals on our fall ballot - Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101. If they pass, thousands more will find themselves out of work.

By Tom Clark, Executive Vice President, Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation

Here’s how these job-killing measures will hurt Colorado.

Amendment 60 cuts the school property tax mill levy in half. That translates to a loss of $1.2 to $1.5 billion a year. School districts will have no choice but to lay off teachers - at least 8,000.  Classrooms will become even more crowded. The proponents claim the state will make up the difference but that’s not likely - not in a state where budget shortfalls have already forced massive cuts. Consider this fact:  In the most recent budget, state funding for public schools was slashed by $260 million and K-12 still represents 40 percent of the overall budget. For the state to backfill the losses from Amendment 60 would leave little funding for other essentials, like health care, prisons and support for higher education. The proponents are relying on smoke and mirrors to sell their misguided and misleading proposals.

Amendment 61 would effectively eliminate public finance for construction of roads, schools, dams, airports, even hospitals. The state would be barred from bonding. Local entities - including school districts - would be required to pay back bonds in 10 years, impossible for large scale projects that are amortized over 20, 30 or 40 years. The impact would be two-fold. There would be no way to build badly needed infrastructure and there would be the loss of thousands of jobs - some 21,000 - in the construction industry. Companies, especially those involved in energy, rely on quality infrastructure wherever they do business - something Colorado won’t be able to provide if these pass. 

Proposition 101 cuts the state income tax rate by nearly 25 percent. Of course, businesses look for states with reasonable taxation policies, but a 25 percent cut is far from reasonable. If you take another billion dollars a year out of the state budget, the result will be even higher college tuition, less state support for K-12 and severe cuts to health care programs such as Medicaid.  Proposition 101 also cuts funding for roads and bridges, eliminating over a fourth of the state’s budget for transportation. That means more potholes and crumbling bridges, making it even more difficult for commerce.

These are dangerous proposals from groups that don’t just want to cut government, they want to cripple it. Coloradans for Responsible Reform - the coalition fighting the measures - estimates that the cumulative effect will be the loss of another 73,000 jobs in Colorado if they pass. 

You can find out more by going to the coalition’s website, www.donthurtcolorado.com.  It is important that businesses join together to defeat these measures. Let’s not let a small group of people with radical ideas destroy our state.