{"id":37532,"date":"2022-11-02T17:08:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T23:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/our-view-ballot-initiatives\/"},"modified":"2022-11-02T23:08:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T23:08:37","slug":"our-view-ballot-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/our-view-ballot-initiatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Our View: Ballot initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
Amendment D \u2013 18th Judicial District \u2013 YES<\/div>\n

Amendment D is necessary and should be approved.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s newly formed 23rd Judicial District \u2013 Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties roughly southeast between Denver and Colorado Springs \u2013 is a portion of the current 18th District. A \u201cyes\u201d vote allows the governor to reassign judges, making the 23rd operational.<\/p>\n

Amendment E \u2013 Gold Star property tax exemption \u2013 YES<\/strong><\/div>\n

We often say the Colorado Constitution is practically sacrosanct, so we\u2019d better have a pretty good reason to want to change it. And it\u2019s Amendment E.<\/p>\n

Amendment E reduces property taxes for surviving spouses of U.S. Armed Forces service members who died in the line of duty and vets who died as a result of service-related injuries or diseases. The existing homestead exemption for disabled vets would expand to include these surviving spouses, of which there are an estimated 490.<\/p>\n

Currently, spouses of 100% disabled vets keep the homestead exemption when vets die, but there is no exemption if spouses are killed while serving in the military. Amendment E addresses that inconsistency and rights this wrong.<\/p>\n

Amendment F \u2013 Charitable gaming – NO<\/strong><\/div>\n

Amendment F reduces from five to three the minimum number of years a nonprofit must be operating in the state to apply for a bingo-raffle license, and authorizes the Legislature to set a different requirement in 2025. A \u201cyes\u201d vote allows bingo-raffle workers to be paid, too.<\/p>\n

Permitting less-established nonprofits to run bingo-raffle games doesn\u2019t seem a worthy reason to amend the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Proposition FF \u2013 Healthy school meals – YES<\/strong><\/div>\n

During the pandemic, one wake-up call came from our schools \u2013 we learned students were hungry.<\/p>\n

When temporary pandemic aid made school meals free last year, Colorado school districts saw 20% to 40% more students participating, according to Hunger Free Colorado.<\/p>\n

Proposition FF: Healthy School Meals for All not only provides breakfast and lunch for all public school students, it helps schools purchase high-quality nutritious food directly from Colorado farmers and rancher. Proposition FF makes sense for families and strengthens our rural Southwest economy.<\/p>\n

The funding plan for Proposition FF is reasonable. And very much worth it.<\/p>\n

Proposition GG \u2013 Table for tax changes \u2013 YES<\/strong><\/div>\n

Proposition GG may go down in history as the absolute easiest bipartisan choice on the ballot.<\/p>\n

It requires a tax information table to appear on petitions and ballots of citizen-initiated measures that change the income tax rate. No partisan spins. Just numbers.<\/p>\n

Something as simple as this income-category table empowers voters to better understand tax changes.<\/p>\n

Proposition 121 \u2013 Reduce income tax – NO<\/div>\n

Proposition 121 reduces the state income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.40%.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the reduction point to the excess revenue that the Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights is returning to taxpayers this year, and will next year.<\/p>\n

Those earning $1 million or more will receive almost half the total tax savings \u2013 an average of about $7,000. A reduction of 0.15% means a savings of $47 for those making $40,000 to $50,000, and $89 for those making $70,000 to $1,000,000.<\/p>\n

Not a lot, in other words. Better to retain the 4.55% rate and make refunds, if required.<\/p>\n

Proposition 122 \u2013 Mushrooms for medicine \u2013 YES<\/div>\n

In the treatment of mental health, psilocybin is too promising to ignore. For this reason, along with legalization\u2019s removal of a criminal element, we support passing Proposition 122 (previously Initiative 58), the measure to legalize psychedelic mushrooms and create a system of state-licensed healing centers with trained facilitators.<\/p>\n

Benefits outweigh risks, according to a plethora of scientific study results.<\/p>\n

Also called the Natural Medicine Health Act, Proposition 122 opens doors to health for people who haven\u2019t found anything that works. Passing Proposition 122 is a compassionate choice.<\/p>\n

Proposition 123 \u2013 Affordable housing – YES<\/div>\n

The lack of affordable housing in the Southwest affects everything. Now, voters can say yes to a common-sense, thorough ballot measure that jump-starts affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Proposition 123 will put about $300 million a year of existing state revenues toward housing. A yes vote supports creating the State Affordable Housing Fund and dedicating one-tenth of 1% (0.1%) of state income tax revenue to fund housing programs.<\/p>\n

This would mean funding about 10,000 affordable housing units per year around the state. Proposition 123 would put us on the path to getting a handle on the housing crisis within 20 years. If the economy were to take a dive, a mechanism to turn off this spending would be in place.<\/p>\n

Proposition 123 would not raise taxes. Instead, it sets aside some revenues. Nothing is free and taxpayers would see a cost to their Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights refunds with money coming from this pool. For example, our TABOR refund this summer was $750. With Proposition 123, we could expect that check to be $707. Not bad, if this means our workers and seniors could afford places to live.<\/p>\n

Proposition 124 \u2013 Increase liquor store licenses \u2013 NO<\/div>\n

Proposition 123 would increase the number of liquor store locations with no limit on stores after 2037. We\u2019re imagining larger chains. We are definitely pro-business, but we don\u2019t see how Proposition 123 benefits consumers. No, thanks on this one.<\/p>\n

Proposition 125 \u2013 Wine in grocery stores \u2013 NO<\/div>\n

We like convenience as much as the next person. Although we imagine middle-priced wines in groceries, we know that small, locally owned liquor stores also sell wine priced in this range.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll skip buying booze at the grocery store and go to our small, local businesses instead.<\/p>\n

Proposition 126 \u2013 Third-party delivery of alcohol \u2013 YES<\/div>\n

Proposition 126 allows businesses that sell alcohol to deliver liquor through third-party companies. The closer we looked, the more it made sense.<\/p>\n

Proposition 126 outlines clear requirements for third-party delivery companies. And if it means our local restaurants and bars can keep their doors open more easily, we\u2019re for it.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amendment D \u2013 18th Judicial District \u2013 YES Amendment D is necessary and should be approved. Colorado\u2019s newly formed 23rd Judicial District \u2013 Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties roughly southeast between Denver and Colorado Springs \u2013 is a portion of the current 18th District. A \u201cyes\u201d vote allows the governor to reassign judges, making the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}