Colorado voters have rejected an attempt to raise state income and sales taxes to fund education, The Denver Post has declared.
With 61 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 103 was going down in flames across the state, with 35 percent in favor to 65 percent against.
That was also true in Denver. With 86,978 ballots counted through 8:30 p.m., the measure was failing 45.3 percent to 54.7 percent.
Even in liberal Boulder County — home to the measure’s chief supporter — the measure was struggling. Most recent results showed it was winning there, but just by 1,804 votes.
State Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, the face of the Support Our Schools Bright Colorado campaign in favor of the ballot measure, conceded defeat less than an hour after polls closed.
“It’s clear the people of this state aren’t ready right now to tax themselves to solve this problem,” Heath said to supporters. “But I hope the people of this state will come together and say, ‘We need to make some changes. We need to find a way to finance our education in a different way.’
“If we have accomplished anything, we have set that conversation in motion.”
Heath almost single-handedly led the effort to put the issue on the ballot, drawing only limited support from fellow Democrats and unable to get Gov. John Hickenlooper, the state’s top Democrat and one who pledged to remain neutral, on board.
Heath personally gathered signatures and even donated $10,000 of his own money to the campaign. Supporters raised more than $600,000 in the effort to pass 103, while opponents raised less than a tenth of that.
“The voters of Colorado have spoken loud and clear that this is a measure that would have killed jobs,” said former state Rep. Victor Mitchell, R-Castle Rock, who led the Save Colorado Jobs campaign.
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