It could cost up to $250,000 to gather the petitions needed to put a K-12 tax increase on the November ballot, some political observers say.
The new group Colorado Commits to Kids on Tuesday formally announced its petition drive to put a $950 million tax increase on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot. Some petitions were circulating about 10 days ago, but it isn’t known how many signatures have been gathered so far.
The campaign has a short but steep road ahead of it – at least 86,105 signatures must be turned in to the Department of State by Aug. 5, just 38 days from Thursday.
“I can’t think of anything else that has been done in this short of a time,” said Katy Atkinson, a veteran political strategist who isn’t involved in the campaign.
The exception, she added, might have been the 2008 petition drive to put Amendment 59 on the ballot. That proposal, which would have diverted surplus state revenues to education, made the ballot but was defeated at the polls.
The petition format for Amendment 59 was approved June 13, 2008, and the petitions were turned in on Aug. 4. The petition format for this year’s proposal, currently titled Initiative 22, was approved June 4.
Colorado Commits plans to use both paid and volunteer petition circulators and has hired a firm named FieldWorks to circulate petitions.
Atkinson said political experts around Denver put the current per-signature cost at $1.50 to $1.75, with that possibly rising to $2.50 per name as the deadline nears.
Another campaign veteran estimated total costs could go as high as $250,000, based on the higher per-signature figure.
Backers of Colorado’s last education-funding proposal, 2011’s Proposition 103, gathered about 140,000 signatures, some 100,000 from paid circulators. As happened in 2008, that plan to temporarily raise income taxes to fund K-12 and higher education made the ballot but was defeated by voters.
Ballot measure proponents typically gather more signatures than required to account for disqualifications. Atkinson said an “overage” of 20 to 30 percent is fairly standard, a figured echoed by others.
At the 30 percent level, Colorado Commits would need to gather about 112,000 signatures.
Because there is no requirement that signatures be gathered statewide, ballot measure advocates “normally do gather most of their signatures in Denver,” Atkinson said.
Two prime signature-gathering events, the Capitol Hill People’s Fair and PrideFest in Civic Center, have come and gone. But Atkinson and others predict lots of petition circulators at next Wednesday’s fireworks show in Civic Center and at the July 5-7 Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Atkinson added, “You always see people on the 16th Street Mall … and, of course, at Rockies games.”
Who else will be carrying the clipboards
The two main organizations expected to provide volunteer petition circulators are the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, and Great Education Colorado, a school funding advocacy group that was heavily involved in the Proposition 103 campaign.
Representatives of both groups confirmed that their members will be involved but offered few specifics – like target numbers of signatures – about the efforts.
“I don’t really have a hard number,” said Mike Wetzel of CEA. “We’re trying to get them [petitions] into the hands of as many members as possible.” He said union President Kerrie Dallman had gathered 175 signatures on her own. “She said she was overwhelmed by the support.”
Wetzel said signature-gathering methods and tactics are left to local CEA units.
Casey Shea of Great Education said, “We hope to gather as many as possible. … We’ll be giving our subscribers all the tools and support they need to get out and gather signatures over the next several weeks, and we’re working on putting together a downloadable petition system as well.” The group pioneered use of downloadable petitions during the Proposition 103 effort.
Jane Urschel of the Colorado Association of School Boards said members of that group will be circulating petitions, but “we have not worked out details on our process quite yet.”
Announcement didn’t signal unanimity
Part of the reason for the campaign’s late start were behind-the-scenes disagreements over which ballot measure version to propose to voters. Initiative 22 proposes a two-tier tax increase, which opposed by some business groups.
Kelly Brough, CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, said her board won’t consider the issue until August, the time of year when it usually reviews proposed ballot measures.
But, she noted, one of the guiding principles adopted by the chamber months ago “was maintaining a flat tax.” She said the chamber is concerned that the proposal could hit small-business owners. Brough noted that the chamber does support the changes proposed in Senate Bill 13-213, which needs the ballot measure funding to go into effect.
Another business group with reservations about the two-tier tax is Colorado Concern. “We have not taken a position on the measure,” said Tamra Ward, the group’s CEO and a former top executive with the chamber.
Many observers consider support by Gov. John Hickenlooper essential to the proposal. A variety of nuanced statements by the governor have left some unsure where he stands, although he has close ties to the campaign organization, and supporters say they’re confident of his backing.
The conservative group Compass Colorado tweaked the governor a bit this week, saying, “It is time for Governor Hickenlooper to take a clear stance.” (Read statement here.)
Compass campaigned against Proposition 103 two years ago. It has a particular non-profit structure that doesn’t require it to report its spending.
Another group, Coloradans Against Unions Using Kids as Pawns, has filed with the Department of State as an opposition committee.
Also on the right, Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, who’s made a career out of attacking the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, has criticized the SB 13-213/Initiative 22 combination has just a way to shore up teacher pensions.