Colorado voters have just overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 103, a statewide ballot initiative that would have raised $3 billion of new money for the state K-12 public schools by increases in both the sales and income tax. The final vote was 65-percent against the initiative and 35-percent for it.
According to Bloomberg, supporters of Proposition 103 raised $607,000 through Oct. 31, while opponents gathered only $25,000. And as to be expected, the state’s teachers union and school boards were fully behind this effort for this massive tax increase.
Among other things, this Colorado vote is yet further proof that Americans are solidly against tax increases, even those that fly under the mantra of “it‘s for the children.” This is a straw in the wind now that the issue of collective bargaining reform has taken a hit in the wake of the vote to repeal Senate Bill 5.
It implies that people will not simply vote to increase their taxes no matter what, but will force school districts and municipalities to layoff public sector employees in order to balance their budgets. The irony here is that much of what opponents of reform said about reduction in things like first-responder service should Issue 2 pass may well happen now that it has failed.
What the votes on Issues 2 and 3 show is that Ohio voters will reject extreme, overreaching legislation, whether passed by ultraconservatives or ultraliberals. Sensible tax increases combined with sensible spending cuts is more likely to be the outcome of the Issue 2 failure, not the ironic reductions in first response service that you predict.