Denver voters have another hefty ballot on their hands in the November election: Three double-sided pages await them in envelopes that began arriving over the weekend.
Beyond school district matters, statewide amendments and propositions, congressional races and the U.S. presidency, Denver voters have nine citywide ballot questions that would change municipal code or the city charter.
That bundle is substantial enough that the Denver Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder this year decided to save the city $200,000 by mailing out a ballot information booklet that contains details only about measures with tax implications, as required by state law.
Some voters have grumbled about that decision. But ballot questions and ordinances without tax implications are still covered in a separate online information book (on the Denver Elections Division’s website) and in special printed copies available at Denver Public Library branches; the Elections Division’s main office, 200 W. 14th Ave.; or any of the city’s three dozen or so voter service and polling stations as they open in coming weeks. A list of those locations is also on the Elections Division’s website.
There’s a 10th city question on the ballot for about 2,500 downtown residents and qualifying businesses, asking to allow the Denver Downtown Development Authority to take on up to $570 million in new debt to pay for area improvements. But most Denver voters won’t weigh in on that question.
Here is a quick summary of the nine city measures facing the scrutiny of all Denver voters this year:
Ballot Issue 2Q
This is one of the questions with tax implications. The measure would increase the city’s effective 8.81% sales tax rate by adding a new 0.34% tax, amounting to 34 cents on every $100 spent, to raise $70 million or more per year to shore up the finances of Denver Health.
The city’s safety net hospital is struggling with budget shortfalls largely stemming from a drastic increase in the cost of providing uncompensated care to patients who do not have insurance. (Read more about Issue 2Q here.)
Ballot Issue 2R
This sales tax increase, spearheaded by Mayor Mike Johnston, would add a 0.5% tax to the city cumulative rate, or 50 cents for every $100 consumers spend on most purchases (excluding some essential items like groceries and gasoline).
The resulting tax money, an estimated $100 million per year to start, would be used to fuel a variety of affordable housing projects and programs in a city where housing costs have increased much more quickly than incomes over the last decade. (Read more about Issue 2R here.)
Referred Question 2S
This measure would amend the city charter to make the Department of Human Rights and Community Partnerships a cabinet-level agency, housing it under the authority of the mayor’s office.
This change would better insulate the department from swings in the city budget and give the mayor’s office more say over its direction, including its role in the city’s work with migrants and people who are homeless.
Referred Question 2T
This measure would remove a requirement from the city charter that police and firefighters in Denver be U.S. citizens. The proposal comes as public safety agencies struggle to recruit and fill job openings.
Immigrants without legal work authorization in the country would not be eligible to be hired.
Referred Question 2U
This measure would give all city employees the right to unionize and collectively bargain labor contracts with their managers and leadership.
The city’s firefighters, police officers and sheriff’s deputies already have this power. This would expand those rights to the city’s roughly 11,000 rank-and-file workers who are not in the public safety sector.
Referred Question 2V
Speaking of the city’s unionized fire department, this measure seeks to iron out a difference between how that union operates and how the police and sheriff’s deputies unions do.
It would install binding arbitration — run by a neutral, third-party arbiter — as the means for resolving contract disputes in the event of an impasse during bargaining. The current method for resolving such disputes is known as advisory fact-finding and can result in a special city election being called.
Referred Question 2W
As the charter is written today, the Denver City Council must vote every four years on whether or not elected officials — including the mayor, the city clerk, the auditor and council members themselves — will get pay raises.
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This measure would take that language out of the city charter, instead making those pay raises automatic every four years. The automatic increases would follow the current limit on raises, matching either the rate of inflation in Denver over the prior four years or the percentage increase in average pay for all city employees over that period, whichever is lower.
Initiated Ordinance 308
This measure, backed by the animal rights advocacy group Pro-Animal Future, would ban the manufacturing, sale, trade and display of a wide variety of fur products.
The ballot language includes several carveouts, including for leather and sheepskin, sheared fibers like wool and items used as part of Native American traditions. (Read more about Initiative 308 here.)
Initiated Ordinance 309
A measure also sponsored by Pro-Animal Future, this proposal would ban slaughterhouses within city limits.
It would shut down the only such facility operating in the city today, the Superior Farms lamb slaughterhouse on the north end of town that accounts for up to 20% of U.S. capacity to process lamb. (Read more about Initiative 309 here.)
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