Brief by Central Staff
Politics – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
If there was any consistent theme to this year’s election hereabouts, it was “don’t raise our taxes.”
Custer County voters turned down a $6.9 million school bond in this year’s election by a 60-40 margin. A tax increase for the library failed by a narrower margin, losing by just 34 votes.
In Saguache, a proposal to raise the town’s sales tax by one cent on the dollar was defeated 98-88.
The election also revealed that our part of the world doesn’t swim in the Colorado mainstream.
Statewide Referendum A passed easily. A cornerstone of Bill Owens’ successful campaign for governor last year, it allows the state to issue bonds to accelerate highway construction, and use federal gasoline-tax proceeds to repay the loans.
It was popular statewide, but it didn’t pass in Central Colorado or the San Luis Valley. We’re not sure why — was it a general aversion to state debt? Or because all the highway projects were in the populated areas of the state and the mountains weren’t getting any of the pork?
