Colorado’s 2025 Election Explained (Using Meatloaf)

Voting on fiscal policy can be tricky in Colorado. You see complicated, accountant-approved sentences like: “Proposition MM caps tax deductions for joint filers earning more than $300,000 a year, down from $16,000 to $2,000 to fund school lunches.” And you’re completely lost, because the phrase “joint filer” makes you picture some guy in his garage alphabetizing his legal weed by strain and potency, with a color-coded filing cabinet labeled Indica, Sativa, and Hybrid.

Or maybe you’re lost because it feels like déjà vu—it didn’t we already vote to raise taxes on the top 5% to fund free school lunches? We did. And now, thanks to the constitutional TABOR amendment, we’re voting again to confirm that, yes, feeding kids is still good.

This is Colorado—we make public policy through the ballot initiative process. Last year’s ballot had 14 statewide measures. We literally voted on cats and dogs—one about bobcat hunting, another about veterinarian licensing. So if your ballot anxiety feels justified, it’s because it is.

But there’s good news. The 2025 ballot is shorter—just two measures: Proposition LL and Proposition MM. We can only do tax policy like these through the ballot box in Colorado.

Below is your survival guide Q and A about Colorado’s (state motto: When in doubt, ballot it out) 2025 statewide ballot measures:

Q: What’s Prop LL?
A: Prop LL keeps funding free school lunches for every kid in Colorado instead of refunding $12 million to tax filers earning more than $300,000.

Q: Didn’t we already vote on free lunches? Why do we have to vote on it again?
A: Yes—Colorado voters approved free school lunches in 2022. The state used revenue from limits on deductions for wealthy taxpayers to fund it. But under TABOR rules, lawmakers must ask voters again to continue using that same revenue source because the state collected more money than initially forecasted.

Q: Did we do something similar with a tobacco tax recently?
A: Yes! In 2023, Colorado voters had to reapprove the state keeping about $24 million in extra tobacco tax revenue that came in higher than expected. Voters already said yes to the tax in 2020—but because it raised a few million more than the original estimate, TABOR made the state come back and ask, “Hey, are you still cool with us spending this on preschool?”

Q: Wait, so like the tobacco tax for preschools, we are now voting on Prop LL to keep feeding kids? That seems… obvious.
A: You’d think so! It’s not a controversial position outside of Dickens novels.

Q: Charles Dickens? The guy who wrote the Scrooge story?
A: Yes, technically A Christmas Carol.

Q: And Prop MM?
A: Prop MM limits deductions for joint filers making over $300,000—from $16,000 down to $2,000—basically raising more funding to keep the free-lunch program running.

Q: Joint?
A: Not that type! A joint filer is a married couple who file one combined tax return together. Prop MM would cap deductions for them if they earn over $300,000 at $2,000 and for single filers at $1,000.

Q: So they are both about free lunches?
A: Yes.

Q: Do they still have Meatloaf Surprise?
A: I’m sorry—what?

Q: You know, Meatloaf Surprise! Or that creamed chipped beef on toast that looked like it came straight out of the Truman Doctrine?
A: I think you’re picturing 1950s school lunch.

Q: What about Liver-and-Onions Thursdays?
A: I think you might be from the 1950s. Do you also recall when milk came in small steel cages and children were legally allowed to smoke cigarettes indoors?

Q: I just want to make sure the kids are getting their Meatloaf Surprise.
A: Okay, you’re definitely from the 1950s. And what was the surprise anyway? Salmonella? Do you need a ride back to your fallout shelter, or can we finish this ballot guide?

Q: Right, right. So Prop MM is…?
A: The one that bolsters the program that keeps feeding actual children, not your sepia-toned memory of one.

Q: What else?
A: If you see anyone reminiscing about creamed chipped beef or cafeteria trays with the faint taste of World War II dust, gently remind them: this is Colorado, 2025—where the meat is plant-based and probably livestreamed and the tater tots are gluten-free.

Q: And a final takeaway?
A: Voting “Yes” on Prop LL and Prop MM feeds the kids. That’s how we must do tax policy that requires new revenue. That’s why there’s voters out there still trying to remember if they just voted for it, against it, or accidentally ordered it on DoorDash.