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Tag: Proposition MM

Voters face a $56 million question: Should “free lunch for all” come from your refund?
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Independence Institute, Approved, State

Voters face a $56 million question: Should “free lunch for all” come from your refund?

By Nash Herman and Jake Fogleman | Independence Institute Executive Summary In 2022, Proposition FF created Colorado’s Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program, offering free school lunches to all students regardless of family income, funded by capping state income tax deductions for households earning over $300,000.  The program’s costs far exceeded expectations in its first year, creating a $56 million shortfall despite earlier warnings that it was likely to be unsustainable.  Proposition LL would let the state permanently retain and spend excess revenue from Prop FF, exempting it from TABOR refund limits going forward.  Proposition MM would institute another income tax hike by further lowering deduction caps, while also diverting some new revenue to fun...
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Griswold Finalizes 2025 Ballot, Voters to Decide on New Tax and Meal Programs
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Griswold Finalizes 2025 Ballot, Voters to Decide on New Tax and Meal Programs

By Michael Braithwaite | The Denver Gazette Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold certified the 2025 election ballot Wednesday, with voters set to vote on two statewide measures in early November. The ballot measures include two propositions concerning the Healthy School Meals for All Program, which pays for public schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, according to the Secretary of State’s website. “I look forward to another successful Coordinated Election this November,” said Griswold, on the website. “Thank you as always to all the County Clerks and election workers across the state for your hard work to ensure every eligible Coloradan can make their voice heard in our secure and accessible elections that lead the na...
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Colorado Ballot Measures LL and MM Risk Wasting More Taxpayer Dollars
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Ballot Measures LL and MM Risk Wasting More Taxpayer Dollars

By The Gazette Editorial Board | Commentary, The Denver Gazette As if Coloradans needed another reason to vote against the tax hikes of Propositions LL and MM — placed on this November’s ballot by our free-spending legislature — a new analysis released this week provides as good an argument as any. The Common Sense Institute’s latest report on the subject reminds us the fundamentally misguided state program that LL and MM are intended to bail out — “Healthy School Meals For All” — is a money pit. Adding tax dollars to it is like pouring water on quicksand. That harsh reality was inevitable from the time the free food giveaway was created in 2022. That was the year ruling Democrats at the legislature evidently got bored with providing free meals only to the low-income children who ...
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Colorado certifies light ballot: Two statewide measures on TABOR refunds and high-earner deductions
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado certifies light ballot: Two statewide measures on TABOR refunds and high-earner deductions

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Colorado voters will be getting a break from a long list of statewide questions this November, after Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced she had certified the 2025 ballot with only two measures going in front of all voters in the state. Voters will however still have their fair share of things to vote on closer to home as many city council and school board seats are up for grabs, as well as new local tax asks and extensions of existing taxes around the state. This year is an odd year election, meaning ballot measures are, for the most part, limited under state law to fiscal issues related to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). The two measures that will appear were both referred by the legislature this S...
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November ballot tax hike seeks to cover collapsing ‘free’ lunch program and SNAP
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

November ballot tax hike seeks to cover collapsing ‘free’ lunch program and SNAP

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–Colorado voters are set to decide further hiking taxes on high-income earners to prop up the state’s dwindling “free” school lunch program as part of the November statewide ballot.  But under a recently amended version of the measure, any excess revenues would be used to also subsidize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps. Colorado’s Healthy School Meals for All program began shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the legislature fully funded “free” school meals for every kid in the public school system for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. With funding set to end after the 2022, lawmakers asked Coloradans to approve Proposition FF, which raised taxes on Coloradan...
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