September 04, 2013 04:26 PM UTC

Amendment 66 Heads To The Ballot

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• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31's Eli Stokols reports, an autumnal battle royale awaits after the recalls:

The proposal to raise income tax rates to generate nearly $1 billion annually to fund a new public education financing model will be on the November ballot, the Secretary of State’s office announced Wednesday.

Initiative 22 will allow voters to decide on whether to approve a two-tiered rate hike to help fund full day kindergarten statewide, along with a number of other reforms.

Moving forward with the blessing of Gov. John Hickenlooper, Amendment 66 is quickly shedding any remaining stigma attached to 2011's failed Proposition 103. Proposition 103 failed in part due to concerns that it wouldn't raise enough revenue to address the longstanding problem of adequately financing education in Colorado. Amendment 66 is not a "band aid," but the most ambitious and comprehensive attempt yet to settle the problem of school finance for the long term. And even after passage, Colorado would remain a low-tax state compared to much of the nation–that fact alone should give voters an idea of the hole the state needs to dig out of.

And in case you didn't know already, no one in Colorado politics gets vacations until mid-November.