Local ballot initiatives are asking to raise taxes to further fund Colorado education and educators, as explained in a previous Collegian article. But what does that really mean for the community?
Proposition CC
Backed by Colorado State University’s Board of Governors Sept. 9, Proposition CC will adjust the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to allow the state to keep excess tax revenue and use it to further fund public and higher education.
Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter said there’s two features of TABOR that are very important, one of which is that any tax increase or modification of tax policy must go to a state-wide vote of the people.
“Secondly, TABOR indexes what the state can spend, with an index that’s pretty constrained,” Ritter said. “Whatever the state can spend, … if there is tax revenue left over above what the state is allowed to spend under the TABOR formula, it’s returned to the people.”
However, Proposition CC does not constrain future legislators to spending the kept revenue on education and transportation.
Ritter said education and transportation funding are the main purpose of the legislation, and CC keeps in place TABOR’s requirement that any tax increase or change in tax policy must go to a state-wide vote.
“While it’s unclear what, exactly, this would mean for (Poudre School District), in general, we would expect some additional one-time funding for education across the state,” PSD Executive Director of Communications Madeline Noblett wrote in an email to The Collegian. “While the district would be an appreciative recipient of these funds, should the measure pass, it is not responsible of us to use these one-time dollars for salaries, which are an ongoing cost.”
Ballot Issue 4A
It’s time to unite together. … The time is now for all of us to rise and lead the charge.” -Mark Bartlett, physical education teacher at Irish Elementary School
Ballot Issue 4A is also known as the PSD mill levy override. 4A’s passage would increase collected PSD property tax by $18 million, used primarily to increase teacher salaries.
Anyone who wishes to find an estimate on how much the property tax increase will be for a specific home can do so on Larimer County’s property assessor website.
“Our salaries haven’t kept up, and we’re scraping by,” said Irish Elementary physical education teacher Mark Bartlett at the Aug. 27 PSD Board of Education meeting. “In order to recruit and retain high-quality candidates, we need to offer a livable wage, and the surrounding districts have done just that.”
PSD plans to allocate $14.7 million of the tax increase to teacher salaries. Not only will first-year teaching salaries be raised to attract new teachers, but PSD wants to restructure the teacher salary schedule to maintain competitive wages and retain quality teachers.
Salary raises for classified employees and support staff are also important aspects of the restructured plan.
“As a school psychologist, which is consistently a hard-to-fill position, I encourage your support of the mill levy override for the purposes of talent attraction and retention,” said Melanie Potyondy, a psychologist at Rocky Mountain High School.
School psychologists are vital to meeting the needs of PSD students with disabilities and safeguarding the safety and emotional wellness of our kindergarten through 21-year-olds here in our district.” -Melanie Potyondy, psychologist, Rocky Mountain High School
Two million dollars will go to increased mental health services for students.
“We know the mental health needs of our students are increasing, and we need to have enough adults to care for and work with them,” Noblett wrote. “PSD does not yet have a specific number or breakdown of positions identified at this time. If the measure passes, PSD would make a recommendation about the hiring of future personnel as part of the district’s annual budget process.”
Potyondy said there’s a serious and persistent state-wide shortage of school psychologists in a time when youth mental health is a more pressing issue than ever before. That $2 million can fund school psychologists.
“School psychologists are vital to meeting the needs of PSD students with disabilities and safeguarding the safety and emotional wellness of our kindergarten through 21-year-olds here in our district,” Potyondy said.
PSD asked for the mill levy override because the district currently has the lowest first-year teacher salary in the Northern Colorado community, which includes Loveland, Greeley and Longmont, by roughly $5,000 per teacher annually.
“It’s time to unite together,” Bartlett said. “The time is now for all of us to rise and lead the charge.”
Serena Bettis can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @serenaroseb.
