{"id":44976,"date":"2021-08-26T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T00:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-voters-will-decide-whether-to-raise-marijuana-taxes-to-boost-out-of-school-learning\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:22:40","slug":"colorado-voters-will-decide-whether-to-raise-marijuana-taxes-to-boost-out-of-school-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-voters-will-decide-whether-to-raise-marijuana-taxes-to-boost-out-of-school-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado voters will decide whether to raise marijuana taxes to boost out-of-school learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cannabis
Cannabis plants grow inside a cultivation facility near Lafayette on Dec. 13, 2018. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Colorado voters will decide Nov. 2 whether to increase the state\u2019s marijuana sales tax rate to support out-of-school learning.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office ruled Wednesday that supporters of Initiative 25 gathered enough signatures to secure a spot on the upcoming ballot. Backers of the Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress Program Initiative, also known as LEAP, easily met the 124,632-signature threshold to qualify for the 2021 statewide election.<\/p>\n

Initiative 25 would impose a new 3% sales tax on recreational marijuana starting Jan. 1 and that would increase to 5% by Jan. 1, 2024, at which point it would generate about $138 million a year. That\u2019s in addition to the existing 15% state sales tax on recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure also would divert $22 million in state land board revenue to the LEAP program.<\/p>\n

Advocates are touting Initiative 25 as a solution to closing learning gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers \u2014 gaps that some educators, parents and advocates fear may have widened during the pandemic. Money would be directed toward tutoring and after-school programs, as well as academic summer camps.<\/p>\n

Low-income students would be prioritized to receive assistance from the initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a substantial disparity in opportunities to access after-school and summer programs in Colorado for years based largely on kids\u2019 race and their family income,\u201d Mike Johnston, president and CEO of Gary Community Ventures, said in a written statement. \u201cAnd new test scores show alarming evidence of major learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2013 particularly for students of color and those who receive free and reduced-price lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitiative 25 is our chance to get our students back on track by providing additional educational support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A hefty roster of Republican and Democratic lawmakers and former officeholders are backing the initiative, including former Govs. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, and Bill Owens, a Republican.<\/p>\n

Opponents argue the initiative will pave the way for school voucher programs to get a foothold in Colorado. Voucher programs, which have grown in other states, give families public funding to pay for private school tuition.<\/p>\n

The marijuana industry is also generally anxious about increased taxes on its products for consumers.<\/p>\n

Two other statewide questions are expected to be on the November ballot after supporters turned in more signatures than they needed to the Secretary of State\u2019s Office earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Initiative 19 seeks to mandate more legislative oversight of how money, including from legal settlements and the federal government, is spent. Initiative 27 seeks to lower property taxes.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Initiative 25 would impose a new 3% sales tax on recreational marijuana starting on Jan. 1 and increasing to 5%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,155,28,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44976","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=44976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86295,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44976\/revisions\/86295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44976"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}