Colorado Ballot Issue Update As Of June 10, 2006

As a result of the two issued added by the special session (tax deductions for employers of illegal immigrant employees and a mandate to sue the Bush Administration for not enforcing immigration laws), at least nine statewide ballot issues that will go before voters in November. According to blogger Dan Willis, one more will officially crash and burn tomorrow, when signatures on a union rights measure are due, because backers lack the signatures to get it on the ballot. Republicans are pushing for yet another referendum on state services to illegal immigrants, although it seems unlikely that this point that they will succeed.

Excluding the mandate to bring an immigration lawsuit, the recent additions the seven measures already on the ballot are:

Referendum E: . . . AN AMENDMENT TO . . . THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF COLORADO, CONCERNING THE EXTENSION OF THE EXISTING PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION FOR QUALIFYING SENIORS TO ANY UNITED STATES MILITARY VETERAN WHO IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT PERMANENTLY DISABLED DUE TO A SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY? . . . .

Referendum F: . . . AN AMENDMENT TO . . . THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF COLORADO . . . PROVIDING FOR THE DEADLINES REGARDING RECALL PETITIONS AND HEARINGS TO BE SET IN STATUTE RATHER THAN IN THE CONSTITUTION AND STATING THAT A RECALL ELECTION SHALL BE HELD AS PART OF A GENERAL ELECTION IF A GENERAL ELECTION WILL BE HELD BETWEEN FIFTY AND NINETY DAYS AFTER THE TIME FOR FILING A PROTEST HAS PASSED AND ALL PROTESTS HAVE BEEN FINALLY DECIDED? . . . .

Referendum G: . . . ELIMINATION OF OBSOLETE PROVISIONS OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION? . . . .

Referendum H: SHALL STATE TAXES BE INCREASED ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ANNUALLY BY AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES THAT ELIMINATES A STATE INCOME TAX BENEFIT FOR A BUSINESS THAT PAYS AN UNAUTHORIZED ALIEN TO PERFORM LABOR SERVICES, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, PROHIBITS CERTAIN WAGES OR REMUNERATION PAID TO AN UNAUTHORIZED ALIEN FOR LABOR SERVICES FROM BEING CLAIMED AS A DEDUCTIBLE BUSINESS EXPENSE FOR STATE INCOME TAX PURPOSES IF, AT THE TIME THE BUSINESS HIRED THE UNAUTHORIZED ALIEN, THE BUSINESS KNEW OF THE UNAUTHORIZED STATUS OF THE ALIEN UNLESS SPECIFIED EXCEPTIONS APPLY AND, TO THE EXTENT SUCH A PAYMENT WAS CLAIMED AS A DEDUCTION IN DETERMINING THE BUSINESS’ FEDERAL INCOME TAX LIABILITY, REQUIRES AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE PROHIBITED DEDUCTION TO BE ADDED TO THE BUSINESS’ FEDERAL TAXABLE INCOME FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING STATE INCOME TAX LIABILITY? . . . .

Referendum I: [A STATUTE] TO AUTHORIZE DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, ENACTING THE "COLORADO DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP BENEFITS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ACT" TO EXTEND TO SAME-SEX COUPLES IN A DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP THE BENEFITS, PROTECTIONS, AND RESPONSIBILITIES THAT ARE GRANTED BY COLORADO LAW TO SPOUSES, PROVIDING THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH A LICENSE FOR A DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP MAY BE ISSUED AND THE CRITERIA UNDER WHICH A DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP MAY BE DISSOLVED, MAKING PROVISIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ACT, AND PROVIDING THAT A DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP IS NOT A MARRIAGE, WHICH CONSISTS OF THE UNION OF ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN? . . . .

Referendum J: [A STATUTE TO] REQUIRE THAT IN EACH STATE FISCAL YEAR A SCHOOL DISTRICT SPEND AT LEAST SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT OF ITS OPERATIONAL EXPENDITURES ON SERVICES THAT DIRECTLY AFFECT STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT? . . . .

Amendment 38: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . allowing petitions to be submitted at all levels of Colorado government; limiting initiative ballot titles to 75 words; changing single subject requirements and procedures; limiting the annual number of new laws that governments may exclude from possible referendum petitions; establishing standards for review of filed petitions; specifying that petitions may be voted on at any November election; limiting the use of government resources to discuss a petition; [and] requiring voter approval for future petition laws and rules and for changes to certain voter approved petitions . . .

Amendment 39: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning a requirement that in each state fiscal year a school district spend at least 65% of its operational expenditures on classroom instruction, with limited exceptions?

Thirteen more measures have an August 7, 2006 deadline to submit their petitions. The petitions still circulating are:

Marihuana Possession: . . . . [A statute] making legal the possession of one ounce or less of marihuana for any person twenty-one years of age or older? . . . .

Issue Committee Contributions: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . prohibiting individuals and entities that make contributions in
excess of five hundred dollars to issue committees that advocate a tax or debt increase from receiving employment, an award of a contract, or any transfer of
taxpayer assets or funds from that governmental entity . . . .

Housing Growth: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . granting the electors of local governments the right to limit housing growth within their boundaries by initiative and referendum, allowing county voters to limit housing growth uniformly within a county, limiting privately owned residential housing in the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, and Larimer for the years 2007 through 2010 to one percent annual growth, requiring at least thirty percent of the housing growth in such counties be affordable housing and affordable senior housing, [and] implementing a moratorium until January 1, 2007, on the issuance of residential building permits in such counties following voter approval of the measure . . . .

Abortion: [A statute] prohibiting the performance of a late-term abortion unless the abortion is based on a medical emergency . . . .

Marriage: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . specifying that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Colorado? . . . .

Oil & Gas Taxes: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . requiring revenues collected [from oil and gas severance taxes] in excess of the limit to be paid to each Colorado taxpayer who is a head of household based on the number of exemptions claimed for federal tax purposes? . . . .

Repeal Ref. C: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . . requiring any state revenues above the amount estimated in the 2005 [Ref. C] ballot information booklet to be refunded to each Colorado taxpayer who is a head of household based on the number of exemptions claimed for federal tax purposes . . . .

English Education: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . requiring school districts to ascertain the number of students unable to perform ordinary classroom work in English . . . ; requiring children to be taught by using the English language in their classrooms and requiring children who are learning English to be educated through an accelerated English acquisition process that is intended to last one year or less; exempting from such requirements those children whose parents or legal guardians obtain waivers allowing the children to transfer to classes using bilingual education . . . ; requiring schools that grant any waivers to offer bilingual education or other educational methodologies when they have at least twenty students in the same grade who receive a waiver and in all other cases permitting students to transfer to a public school in which bilingual education or other methodologies are offered; . . . and requiring schools to annually test children learning English, enrolled in second grade or higher, using a standardized nationally accepted test of English proficiency . . . .

Minimum Wage: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . increasing Colorado's minimum wage to $6.85 per hour, adjusted annually for inflation, and providing that no more than $3.02 per hour in tip income may be used to offset the minimum wage of employees who regularly receive tips? . . . .

Anti-Domestic Partnerships:[A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution prohibiting the creation or recognition by the state or its political subdivisions of a legal status similar to that of marriage, as described in the "Uniform Marriage Act" in the 2005 version of the Colorado Revised Statutes? . . . .

Ethics in Government: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . prohibiting a public officer, member of the general assembly, local government official, or government employee from soliciting or accepting certain monetary or in-kind gifts; prohibiting a professional lobbyist from giving anything of value to a public officer, member of the general assembly, local government official, government employee, or such person's immediate family member; prohibiting a statewide elected officeholder or member of the general assembly from personally representing another person or entity for compensation before any other such officeholder or member for a period of two years following departure from office; establishing penalties for a breach of public trust or inducement of such a
breach; creating a five-member independent ethics commission to hear ethics complaints, to assess penalties, and to issue advisory opinions on ethics issues;
and specifying that the measure shall not apply to home rule jurisdictions that have adopted laws concerning matters covered by the measure? . . . .

Definition of Domestic Partnership: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . declaring that domestic partnerships do not affect the institution of marriage between one man and one woman, stating that notwithstanding any other provision of law a domestic partnership is established as a unique and valid relationship between eligible adults of the same sex and is not similar to marriage, and directing the general assembly to enact implementing legislation . . . .

Term-Limits for Justices: [A]n amendment to the Colorado constitution . . . providing four-year terms of office for justices of the supreme court and judges of the court of appeals, prohibiting a justice of the supreme court or a judge of the court of appeals from serving more than three terms, and making any justice or judge who has served more than twelve years at one court level ineligible for another term at that level?