Denver November 2003 Election
Update: Here's an article about the spending from both sides around Amendment 33 from the Rocky Mountain News [September 30, 2003, "Video lottery initiative could be costliest ever"]. The article also mentions Referendum A finance information. From the article, "The combined fund raising for both campaigns has topped $6 million, pushing closer to the record of $6.6 million set three years ago. Amendment 33 backers, Support Colorado's Economy and Environment, raised $990,000 in the past two weeks, according to reports filed Monday with the Colorado secretary of state's office. That pushes the group's overall total to about $3.1 million. The opposition, Don't Turn Racetracks into Casinos, raised about $791,000 in the past two weeks to bring its total to about $2.9 million, according to state records. The campaign has spent $1.4 million. Referendum A proponents have raised $537,490, with about $65,000 coming during the past two weeks. The No on A campaign nearly matched that two-week fund-raising total, according to its report, which will be filed officially on Wednesday. Opponents raised about $62,000 for their relatively new campaign."
Amendment 32 is the subject of this article from the Rocky Mountain News [September 30, 2003, "Putting a human face on Amendment 32"]. From the article, "The amendment would freeze the rate at which residential assessments are taxed. If the amendment fails, the state projects the rate would continue to fall, as it has since Gallagher was adopted in 1982. Passed by voters because of escalating residential taxes, Gallagher has had the effect of shifting more and more of the tax burden to commercial properties. It fixes homeowners' annual share of the total tax burden at 45 percent and that of commercial property owners' at 55 percent. But if that provision is overruled by Amendment 32, the burden would start to shift to homeowners again once a city, school district or other property-tax entity reaches the revenue limit set by the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. Regardless of whether Amendment 32 passes, homeowners will pay more in property taxes over time. But if Amendment 32 passes, experts say that by 2009, the average homeowner will pay $119 more each year than if it doesn't pass and Gallagher is kept intact. If Amendment 32 passes and stops the steady drop in the rate at which residential property is taxed, estimates from the Colorado Legislative Council show that in 2009, homeowners would pay just over 10 percent more in taxes than they otherwise would with Gallagher in effect. That's because the assessment rate would be frozen at 8 percent of the home's value rather than dropping to the projected 2009 level of 7.25 percent."
Here's an opinion piece from the Denver Post [September 28, 2003, "Here's how to make water woes worse"] about Referendum A. Gail Schoetler says, in the column, "Referendum A would obligate Colorado taxpayers to repay $4 billion in bonds plus interest. Our state has already borrowed billions of dollars to fund highway construction. To add to that staggering debt makes no sense. Second, this measure does not specify what projects would be funded by this huge borrowing. That means Coloradans would be paying, for decades, for projects that may provide limited or no benefits to us, for projects that may help only private enterprises, or for projects that may never be needed. We just don't know. And, if we don't know, we shouldn't saddle ourselves with crushing debt to give the state a blank check. Then, there's the issue of choosing which projects get funded through this borrowing. The Water Conservation Board would be able to recommend water projects, but the governor would get to choose which ones actually get money. That gives way too much power to the governor. It would be easy to turn these taxpayer dollars into a gravy train for your biggest campaign contributor or big bucks for your best buddy. Right now, the best-managed and most financially secure water companies and districts can borrow on their own, as they should. They also have access to $500 million in bonding authority that the Colorado Water & Power Authority already has. Many of these entities will find their own financing at lower rates than they could get from the state. That means applicants for these borrowed dollars are likely to be the riskier borrowers. Not a good bet for the state's taxpayers."
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From the article, "Hart toyed with running for president again this year but decided against it in May. Hart's first presidential campaign was in 1984, the same year Kerry was elected senator from Massachusetts. Kerry and Hart served together for two years until Hart left the Senate. Active in Democratic politics for more than three decades, Hart served as George McGovern's campaign manager in the 1972 Democratic nominee's unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Hart was elected to the Senate in 1974. Hart won the New Hampshire presidential primary in 1984, but lost the nomination to Walter Mondale. In the warmup to the 1988 race, Hart was off to a fast start but was forced out after stories surfaced of his extramarital involvement with model Donna Rice. During his 15 years out of politics, Hart has been busy practicing law, writing more than a dozen books - both fiction and nonfiction - and offering his expertise on the military and national security. He was co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on National Security, which warned several months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that the United States faced a clear threat of foreign attack on U.S. soil that would kill thousands."
