2010 Business Ballot Guide

Don’t let them trick you. Amendments 60, 61 and Proposition 101 are too good to be true.

A citizens group in Montrose urged voters not to support the three ballot issues comparing them to onions. “The more you peel them back, the more you want to cry.”

They promise tax relief but the fine print delivers a reckless package of deceptive job killing proposals that will increase class sizes across Colorado and hammer our small businesses.

Eighty thousand jobs will be lost in our sputtering economy, pushing Colorado deeper into recession. More than half the job losses will come from private businesses, the rest from critical public service functions in state and local government. That’s why the Denver Post warns these proposals, “might be tempting for some voters. But they would be devastating for Colorado.”

Seven thousand teachers will get pink slips driving class up class sizes everywhere. Nowhere will the damage from these ill-conceived proposals be greater than in our schools. The chief financial officer of D-11 in Colorado Springs said, “We don’t have a way to make payroll.” And the Boulder Daily Camera points out, “The truth is that K-12 education funding will be decimated and schools will have nowhere to turn.”

Small businesses will be hammered. Our small businesses are the job creation engine that drives Colorado’s economy. Many of these companies will not survive the impact of new tax burdens that will be tacked on to small businesses if these proposals pass. Those that survive will be even smaller.