November 2003 Ballot
Amendment 32 and it's effect on property taxes is the subject of this editorial from Peter Blake of the Rocky Mountain News [August 23, 2003, "Blake: How ballot proposal would raise your property taxes"]. Says Blake, "The initiative would amend the so-called Gallagher Amendment, which says that when the value of all residential property rises compared to other property, the residential assessment rate must go down. That rate has declined steadily since 1986, when the residential rate was 21 percent of actual value. The current rate is 7.96 percent. The ballot proposal would freeze the residential assessment rate at 8 percent effective in 2005. That's slightly higher than the current rate, but the small increase isn't the main reason residential taxes would go up from year to year. The main reason is that if the rate isn't frozen, it would continue to go down. It's expected to decrease to 7.60 percent for taxes paid in 2006 and 2007, and to 7.25 percent for taxes paid in 2008 and 2009. According to the Blue Book, passing the amendment means that taxes on a $208,000 home (the average value statewide) would rise a modest $6 in 2005. But for each of the next two years the increase would be $58, and in 2008 and 2009, $119. That's a total tax increase of $360 over five years. Beyond then, it's hard to gauge the impact."
The Denver Post [August 24, 2003, "Slot machines are a sucker bet"] has an editorial against Amendment 33. It would allow video lottery terminals in 5 racetracks in Front Range communities. From the editorial, "For openers, let's be very clear that the proposed horde of slot machines is just that: a horde of slot machines. The promoters - who advertised them as slot machines in other states - retitled the devices 'video lottery terminals' in Colorado to capitalize on the good will citizens have for the long-established state lottery. promoters would obviously like you to believe that the '61 percent' they promise is more than the 27 percent delivered by the lottery. But look at the fine print. The 61 percent that Wembley is promising applies only to 'net VLT proceeds' - net profits after all expenses are deducted, including payouts to bettors and operating expenses. If that net profit is 10 percent - a reasonable estimate - the state would get barely 6 cents out of every dollar pumped into the slot machines - less than a fourth of the 27 cents of each lottery dollar that goes to parks and open space. That's bad enough, but there is worse to come for voters in the arcane language of Wembley's initiative. Wembley wrote its proposal so as to exempt the new Front Range casinos from the state gaming tax paid by the existing limited gaming casinos in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. That tax averaged 13.8 percent of those casinos' gross revenue last year (not the net profit used in Wembley's proposal). The lion's share of the gaming tax goes to fund historic preservation, which could be undercut if gamblers migrate from the historic mining towns to the new Front Range casinos. But there's even more bad news for the five communities that would become the unwilling hosts of Wembley's new casinos if Amendment 33 passes. Thirty-five percent of the existing gaming tax goes to the host communities to deal with the impacts of the casinos, such as traffic, parking and law enforcement. In contrast, the cities forced to host the Wembley casinos wouldn't get one dime - nothing, nada, zero, zilch - to cope with the inundation of their streets and neighborhoods. Nor would the targeted communities have the right to turn down the new casinos. Wembley - which owns four of the five racetracks that would be converted to casinos - wrote its proposal to exempt the new casinos from the provision of a 1994 state constitutional amendment giving local communities the right to approve new casinos." Jonne Ditmer, writing in the Post [August 24, 2003, "VLT plan stinks"], also comes out against Video Lottery Terminals, as does Post editor Bob Ewegen [August 23, 2003, "Colorado voters get an ear full of cider"].
9:19:45 AM 
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