The board of education of Pueblo City Schools (D60) was judicious in deciding to put off asking voters for higher taxes this year. The D60 school board realized there wasn’t enough time between now and the Sept. 8 deadline for submitting ballot questions for the November election. The district opted instead to take another year to prepare and then place a mill-levy override and/or a bond issue vote to the taxpayers, potentially for the November 2018 ballot.

First, the board decided, the district needs to resolve lingering contract negotiations with the teachers union and to bring them and other employee locals into a potentially united front to support one or even two tax issues.

A political action committee would have to be formed to help sell voters on a property tax increase – to pay for salaries and instruction with a mill-levy override and/or a bond issue to finance capital construction projects. A lot goes into the process, including polling the community in order to crystallize the ballot question for maximum success in a mail-in election in which ballots may be cast as early as October 2018.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.