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In an editorial, the Fort Collins Coloradoan poses an intriguing question about tax-slashing amendments 60 and 61, and Proposition 101: “Do we want to punish government so badly that we cede our individual right to vote?” The newspaper calls the measures—which would cut property taxes approved by voters, prevent government from borrowing, and reduce the state income-tax rate—”dangerous” individually and “heinous” collectively. In citing a few examples, the paper points out that the already-cash-strapped Poudre School District would lose 50 percent of its funding due to reduced property-tax collection if Amendment 60 passes and roughly $50 million in revenues if all three proposals pass.
While the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, a group that supports shuttering public libraries and selling off light rail, is backing the measures, the results of a recent poll aren’t as enthusiastic. The SurveyUSA poll shows that 10 percent of likely voters support amendments 60 and 61, and just 12 percent support Proposition 101 (via The Denver Post). While opposition to the measures is strong in the poll, so is uncertainty: The percentage of potential voters who have yet to decide where they stand hovers in the low 40s.
Meanwhile, Amendment 62, the so-called “personhood” measure, is also polling low. And an editorial in the Post won’t help supporters of 62, which would essentially define a fertilized human egg as a person, granting it all the protections of a person. One reason to shoot down the measure, the Post writes, is that it “raises ridiculous questions about whether a woman could be held criminally negligent in the case of a miscarriage.”