Why Be A Precinct Organizer? 2024

Our County Party is looking for year-round volunteers to support our activities. One of the best ways to do that is to become a Precinct Organizer (formerly called PCPs, Precinct Committee People), a key volunteer position in every one of Colorado’s 64 counties. Each precinct is supposed to have two PCPs. Here are some reasons for which you might consider becoming a Precinct Organizer:

•    Precinct Organizers are an essential component of an effective political organization.

•    Statewide, organized precincts perform 3 percent better at the ballot box for Democratic candidates and Democratic-backed ballot measures. [NOTE FROM BETTY: We do better than that!]

•    Precinct Organizers serve as liaisons of the Party in their neighborhoods to promote candidates, discuss issues, and grow the Party in strength and resilience through each election cycle. [BW: We are already right now in the 2024 Presidential and other elections!]

•    Even more importantly, Precinct Organizers reflect the concerns and values of their neighbors. They communicate from a position of trust and familiarity in a way that no one else can. [BW: If you have one of our Pitkin County “Believe In” t-shirts of any color/vintage, our Core Values are on the back. We switch out/add a few most years. That is one excellent place to start conversations and get people to join our huge, wonderful email list; we NEVER lend, give, sell or otherwise compromise the names and email addresses on our email list!]

•    Precinct Organizers are elected every two years at the County Caucuses or appointed between elections by the County Chair. Each precinct has 2 Precinct Organizers.

Duties of Precinct Organizers in the Pitkin County Democratic Party

·      Support the nominees of the state and county parties [BW: Those are the candidates on our Blue Cards each election – distributing Blue Cards in election season is a vital function of Precinct Organizers –, as are the ballot issues we support or oppose.]

·      Recruit Democratic volunteers [and coordinate their activities –you wouldn’t have to coordinate them, just give their contact info to Betty] within your precinct

·      Manage and conduct the distribution of Democratic literature, such as our Blue [slate] Cards, post cards and candidate lit, within the precinct [Again, please be here in election season if you are applying to be a Precinct Organizer!]

·      Participate in drives and canvasses, such as (BW: Choose whatever resonates with your interests/skills.): phone banking from home around election times; voter registration under trained supervision (never alone); text banking from home after training; helping to build our July 4th float and/or volunteering at the July 4th Community Village exhibit and/or walking with us at the July 4th Parade OR ALL THREE!; and volunteering at least one Saturday at the all-important Presidential Year Saturday Market any date(s) between June 8 and October 5 from 8am to 2pm

·      Act as liaison with Pitkin County Democratic Party officers 

[It would be terrific if you were also willing to be either a volunteer Poll Watcher – the eyes and ears of the Pitkin Dems on and/or around Election Day after taking an online course – or an Election Judge (chosen at County Caucus or if necessary, added with the approval of the County Party Chair and paid an honorarium) – or even both.]                                      Pitkin County Democratic Party, Colorado 2024 

PROPOSITION HH

Both of our statewide ballot issues this year come to us as reactions to voters’ decisions in 2020:

We repealed the Gallagher Amendment that lowered tax rates as property values went up, and we approved Proposition EE that increased taxes on cigarettes and nicotine products to raise money to pay for preschool programs.

Gallagher passed in 1982, 10 years before TABOR. As property values rose strongly around most of Colorado, the residential assessment rate went down steadily from 21% in 1982 to 7.15% in 2020. Commercial properties remained at a fixed 29%. In 2021, the Legislature temporarily reduced the assessment rate for 2022 and 2023 to 6.765%, where it is now. HH would lower that rate to 6.7% through 2032. Without HH, the rate would rise to 6.976% for 2024 taxes due in 2025 and 7.15% for 2025 taxes due in 2026.

Schools, in particular, suffered from this low-taxes-regardless-of-consequences policy. The Legislature was forced to create the Budget Stabilization Factor, commonly the “BS Factor,” an amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, that was an unredeemable IOU for the shortfall in funding legally required under the Colorado Constitution, itself probably a low-ball figure. Between 2000, when the Amendment 23 school funding initiative passed, and 2022, that IOU surpassed $9 billion. Colorado ranked 35th in per-pupil funding in 2021, according to the U.S Census Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finances. It ranks 46th in full-time-equivalent per pupil spending in higher education, according to State Higher Education Finance Public Higher Education Data. Is it any wonder that public education advocates support a proposition that can put over $2 billion in revenue per year into K-12 education alone and a total of about $10 billion over the 10-year life of HH?


Between 2021, the last year properties were reassessed, and 2023, real estate values increased by about 40% across Colorado, with a much greater increase in Pitkin County. Because Gallagher was repealed without any replacement, Coloradans stand to pay much higher real estate taxes going forward. The Truth-In-Taxation provision in HH would limit local tax increases, except for those of school districts and home rule jurisdictions, to the rate of inflation or require a public hearing and the passage of a resolution or an ordinance. Like much of the Proposition, it’s uncertain how effective this element of HH would be. Would every taxing entity really engage in an election campaign every time its revenues increase by more than 4%?

The annual amount of tax relief under HH is estimated to be between $1 billion and $1.6 billion. In order to offset the loss of income to schools, fire protection, police, local governments and other local tax jurisdictions, HH proposes to raise the TABOR cap by 1%. The cap is the amount over which revenues received by the state must be returned to taxpayers in the form of TABOR refunds. 

By reducing over time but NOT eliminating TABOR refunds, money will become available to backfill tax jurisdictions for their lost real estate tax revenue. This is from the Colorado Sun explainer:

  • Schools would be reimbursed for all of the revenue lost due to the reductions in Proposition HH.
  • Ambulance, fire and health districts would be completely reimbursed for their revenue reductions until their area assessed property values rise more than 20% above their 2022 levels. After that threshold is reached, the state will reimburse only half of their lost funding.
  • All other local districts funded by property taxes would be completely reimbursed until their area assessed property values rise more than 20% above their 2022 levels, the repayments from the state stop. (In 2023, however, all districts will receive reimbursement for separate property tax reductions adopted by the legislature in 2022 even if their property values grow by more than 20%.)
  • County governments with more than 300,000 people will get only partial backfill unless their areas assessed property values grow by less than 10%.

TABOR REFUNDS

Taxpayers get a TABOR refund in every year in which the economy outpaces population growth plus inflation. All taxpayers will receive a flat $832 for 2023, regardless of income, then a projected $326-$1,028 in 2024, and a projected $269-$848 in 2025, depending on income. The Blue Book makes it clear that TABOR refunds are not eliminated. However, for years in which the TABOR cap including the 1% HH cap increase is not exceeded by state revenues, there would be no TABOR refund. 

PROPERTY TAX CHANGES

HH would not lower taxes. It would lower the increase in taxes virtually everyone in the state will experience whether they own or rent their residence and are taxed directly or indirectly. The relief would begin in 2023 for taxes due next year, and continue until 2032.

Under HH, the first $50,000 of home value would be exempt in 2023, dropping to $40,000 in 2024 and continuing through 2032 or beyond. After 2026, the $40,000 exemption will be available solely for primary residences.

HH would reduce the commercial rate from 29% to 27.85% through 2026, then 27.65% in 2026 and 26.9% in 2029. Agricultural and renewable energy property rates would drop to 26.4% through 2032, also from 29%, and those used for both would fall to 21.9%

SENIOR HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION

People over 65 who have owned and lived in their primary residence for at least 10 years have been able to exempt up to $100,000 of their home’s value from taxation. Currently, if they move for any reason, they lose the break in their new residence but HH would make that exemption portable.

SUPPORT 

AARP Colorado 

National Education Association

Colorado Education Association

The Colorado Association of School Boards

Colorado Professional Firefighters

Colorado Concern (CEOs)

Education Reform Now Advocacy Inc

Boldly Forward Colorado 

Property Tax Relief Now

Gary Advocacy LLC

Pat Stryker

Sixteen Thirty Fund

The Grand Junction Sentinel

The Denver Post

OPPOSE

Advance Colorado Action

Defend Colorado

Americans for Prosperity, Colorado Issue Committee (Koch Brothers)

Colorado Municipal League

Colorado Counties, Inc (representing 61 of Colorado’s 64 counties)

Special District Association of Colorado

Colorado Association of Realtors

National Federation of Independent Businesses, state branch

“Our members’ constituents demand improvements to transportation, housing, public safety and other services,” Colorado Counties Inc President Steve O’Dorisio, an Adams County commissioner, said in a written statement. “(The) majority of CCI’s members are concerned that Prop HH could reduce local governments’ ability to respond to these public expectations, unfunded mandates and additional regulatory requirements.” (The Unaffiliated, Colorado Sun, Oct 13, 23)

The very Republican Douglas County Assessor’s Office: https://www.douglas.co.us/assessor/proposition-hh-ballot-measure/

INFORMATION

Bell Policy Center: 


Colorado Sun explainer:


SUMMARY

Proposition HH is a flawed and convoluted ballot question that provides:

  • Substantial and desperately needed aid for public schools 
  • A modicum of (inequitably distributed) tax relief 
  • A 1% increase in the ridiculous TABOR cap that is strangling a modern state with tax policies that are the sick fantasy of TABOR author and convicted tax felon Douglas Bruce 
  • A limit on how much local taxing entities can raise taxes 
  • A slowing in the rate of increase of real taxes paid directly or indirectly by Coloradans
  • Reduced commercial property taxes estimated to be $4.5 billion over the 10-year life of HH 
  • A portable Senior Housing Exemption

On the other hand:

  • It’s impossible to say how much HH will save any particular taxpayer.
  • What happens to essential services if the real estate market drops?
  • Initiative 50, a 4% statewide limit on real estate tax increases on the 2024 ballot, would hinder the state’s ability to honor HH obligations such as backfilling. We could wind up with another Budget Stabilization Factor and more worthless IOUs.
  • Most lower income people are not property owners. The claimed $20 million in HH rental assistance is actually $8 million in 2024-25 and $18 million in 2025-26. Transfers to the Housing Development Grant Fund are “expected to grow but are capped at $20 million per year.” (Blue Book)
  • For lower income people, TABOR refunds matter greatly. Reduced or eliminated refunds will take food off people’s tables.
  • Some counties stand to lose considerable, and perhaps irreplaceable, revenue.

Parts of HH promise unknowable or illusory benefits. It isn’t fair to everyone. It’s ridiculously complicated, taking and giving, taxing and backfilling. Still, its most obvious benefit, raising the TABOR cap by 1% in order to fund public education is, full stop, worth doing. When we look at all the education-dedicated organizations on the list of HH supporters, and the Koch Brothers and other implacable foes of taxation and responsible government in opposition, add up the benefits and the problems with HH, we say YES this year and await next year’s tax battles and a fairer, more effective, tax structure for Colorado.

PROPOSITION II

After the exhausting HH discussion, it’s a great relief to turn to Proposition II. 

In 2020, voters approved Proposition EE, which increased taxes on cigarettes, tobacco and nicotine products in order to pay for pre-school programs across the state. TABOR requires (oh geez… that again) that sponsors must say in advance how much their ballot item will raise. If more than the estimate is generated, the surplus must be returned, in this case to wholesalers and distributors of cigarettes, tobacco products and nicotine products, and the tax rate must be lowered to compensate for the excess. The 2020 estimate was $186.5 million for the first year. $208 million was collected. The $21.5 million plus interest is the sum in question, $23.65 million in all, plus future collections depending on maintaining the current nicotine product tax rate.

Pre-school kids or tobacco vendors?

YES on II.

Local Ballot Measures (depending on where you live in Pitkin County)

Snowmass Village 2A, elected officials may serve as non-voting members on boards. 

We think the institutional knowledge elected officials would bring to board sessions would be a valuable addition to meetings. 

YES


Base Village Metropolitan District 2, Ballot Issue 6A, repeal unused debt authorization

The Notice of Election from the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder explains how five voters who were employees of a land developer unanimously voted to authorize the District to borrow up to $$453.5 million for infrastructure projects. The project is now built out and $403.6 million borrowing authority remains. YES will reverse that borrowing authority. Supporters of the measure argue that, if a future construction project is proposed, all taxpayers and not just those 5 employees should decide.

We also think retiring unused debt authorization may help the District’s credit rating in the event of future borrowing.

YES 


Snowmass Water and Sanitation District Ballot Issue 6B, extend expiring mill levy without a tax increase

A mill levy was originally approved in 2013 to pay for the operation, maintenance, repair and capital costs for the Water District for a period of 15 years. This proposed extension of the existing mill levy, without an increase in taxes, will allow the District to replace aging water and sewer lines, reduce leaks, protect local streams, reduce costs, reduce chemical water treatment, and save energy.

YES


Basalt and Rural Fire Protection District Ballot issue 7A, tax increase to pay for El Jebel’s fire station expansion

The Basalt and Rural Fire Protection District proposes a tax increase $2.1 million annually, $26 million in sum with a repayment cost of up to $42 million, to pay for the “expansion, renovation and modernization of Fire Station 42 in El Jebel, including adding crew quarters to allow additional 24-hour staffing and response capability, and adding training and maintenance facilities and employee housing.“

Given the growth in mid-valley and the threat that fire poses daily, this is an essential project.

YES

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We won’t bombard you with mail, and we never share our list with anyone, ever.

Send your name and email address to pitkincountydemocrats@outlook.com

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Pitkin County Democratic Party

PO Box 8921

Aspen, CO 81612