September 04, 2024 11:19 AM UTC

Initiatives 50 and 108 are Officially Dead as Democrats Emerge Victorious

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• by: Colorado Pols

The wicked witch is dead. Both of them.

As the Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced via press release this morning:

Proponents of Proposed Initiative #50, “Voter Approval to Retain Additional Property Tax Revenue,” and Proposed Initiative #108, “Valuation for Assessments,” have withdrawn those measures from the 2024 General Election ballot. As a result, those initiatives will not appear on the General Election ballot in November.

Proposed Initiative #50 was deemed sufficient to appear on the General Election ballot on October 6, 2023. Proponents submitted 227,357 signatures. Because the initiative proposed a change to the Colorado Constitution, the initiative was required to submit 124,238 valid signatures including signatures equal to two percent of the total registered electors from each of Colorado’s 35 Senate districts. The Elections Division determined that 172,231 were valid, including the required number of signatures from each Senate district.

Proposed Initiative #108 was deemed sufficient to appear on the General Election ballot on August 21, 2024. Proponents submitted 196,994 petition signatures. After reviewing a five-percent random sample of the submitted signatures, the Elections Division projected the number of valid signatures to be greater than 110 percent of the total number of 124,238 signatures required for placement on the ballot.

State law gives the proponents of a ballot measure the right to withdraw their measure at any time, including after a petition has been submitted and deemed sufficient, so long as they do so no later than sixty days before the election. For the 2024 General Election, that deadline is September 6, 2024.

Pursuant to the Title Board’s rules, the withdrawal of the initiative by proponents is irrevocable.

Thus ends a completely ridiculous and absolutely avoidable travesty of a property tax battle that saw three nitwits with a checkbook nearly bankrupt the State of Colorado because of their inability to complete good-faith negotiations with lawmakers at the end of the 2024 regular legislative session.

Last week’s special legislative session resulted in very minimal changes to the initial property tax reduction compromise reached in May, in which bad faith actors such as Michael Fields of Advance Colorado and Dave Davia of Colorado Concern balked at a deal that everyone else seemed to think was final and then attempted to use two ridiculous ballot measures — Initiatives 50 and 108 — as a bludgeon to force Democrats back to the negotiating table. Kristi Burton Brown of Advance Colorado all but admitted just days before the special session that they didn’t have the resources in place to get 50 and 108 across the finish line in the General Election, but Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic leaders moved forward with a special legislative session because the mere possibility that these measures might pass wasn’t worth the risk to the State of Colorado.

As part of the deal worked out in the special legislative session, Fields, Davia, and JJ Ament of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce — which oddly joined the other two schmucks at the last minute — agreed to pull 50 and 108 from the ballot and pledged not to run any similar property tax measures for at least six years. Since nobody in their right mind would trust these three groups ever again, Polis waited until the measures were officially dropped from the ballot before signing the legislation finalized in the special session.

Democrats will now look at options for preventing such a hostage-taking situation from happening again when lawmakers reconvene for the next regular session in January.

In the meantime, lessons have already been learned regarding the perils of trying to negotiate with Advance Colorado, Colorado Concern, or the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. Republicans should also take note on an underrated result from this silly situation: Democrats enter the final stretch of the 2024 election cycle with the ability to tout another property tax cut to voters.

Fields, Davia, and Ament aren’t quite as useful to Democrats as the never-ending idiocy of the Colorado Republican Party, but it’s safe to say that this entire situation ends up benefiting Democrats more than it does anyone else. It’s sort of like giving a gag gift that turns out to be something the other person actually ends up using on a regular basis.