CFI positions on 2016 ballot measures

There are a slew of important ballot measures before Colorado voters this year. Here are CFI’s positions:

Amendment 69 (ColoradoCare): Oppose.

CFI supports universal health care and is open to a single-payer system, but believes this must be done at the national level and cannot be done on a state-by-state basis. We’re also concerned that the particular financing methods within Amendment 69 rely too heavily on federal approvals that may not come. Many other organizations that support universal care as CFI does also oppose the amendment.

Amendment 70 (Minimum wage): Support.

CFI wholeheartedly supports Amendment 70, which would raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. This is a modest, phased-in increase in the minimum wage, and the evidence overwhelmingly shows that such judicious increases have little to no effect on employment. Meanwhile, the evidence also shows there will be positive effects on the economy. Increasing the minimum wage is a no-brainer, which is why we are part of a vast coalition supporting the amendment.  

Amendment 71 (Raise the bar): Oppose.

Supporters of this amendment want to make it harder to amend the constitution by initiative but have crafted a proposal that will simply reserve the initiative process for the billionaire class.

By requiring that signatures come from all 35 state senate districts, Amendment 71 would make signature collection exorbitantly expensive. It also would mean that 1/35th of the state’s population, by refusing to sign a petition in sufficient numbers, could decide that the rest of the state would not get to even consider an issue, even if 34/35ths of the population had signed the petition

While the proposal raises the voter approval requirement for initiated constitutional amendments to 55 percent, it also imposes this requirement for referred measures from the legislature. This is a fatal flaw. Unlike initiated measures, referred measures go through an extensive vetting process, have lots of public input and must achieve the consensus of two-thirds majorities in both legislative houses. Amendment 71 would make it much more difficult for referred measures to pass, even when that measure has been well-considered and fully vetted and might fix a serious and urgent problem, such as one caused by a flawed constitutional initiative.

There are organizations across the political spectrum opposed to this measure.

Amendment 72 (Cigarette tax): Support.

This amendment would triple the taxes on a pack of cigarettes in Colorado, and CFI joins the long list of organizations in support. A vast body of evidence shows that increasing the price of cigarettes deters smoking, especially among the young, who are more price sensitive and less likely to become habitual smokers when the price of a pack of cigarettes goes up. Fewer smokers means lowers medical costs for all of us and a more productive economy.

Amendment T (Delete slavery language in constitution): Support.

Removes language in the state constitution that currently allows slavery and involuntary servitude to be used as punishment for the conviction of a crime. CFI supports this measure as an important symbolic action.

Amendment U (Property tax exemption for “possessory interest”): Support.

Would, beginning with tax year 2018, eliminate property taxes for individuals or businesses that use government-owned property for a private benefit that is worth $6,000 or less in market value. Examples include people who lease land from the federal government for cattle grazing, skiing or river rafting. The value of such a private financial benefit on public land is taxable as a “possessory interest” under current law.

For more information on all these measures, please go to countmeincolorado.com