Colorado voters must decide soon on two issues referred to them by the state legislature.

The first issue is Proposition HH, one of the longest and most confusing ballot issues Coloradans have seen in a long time. It takes more than 12 pages in the Colorado Ballot Information Booklet (Blue Book) to try to explain it, which despite seven charts does not help much.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the teachers’ unions, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the League of Women Voters and liberal advocacy groups favor its passage. Conservative advocacy groups such as Advance Colorado Action, Americans for Prosperity, and editorial boards at the Wall Street Journal and the Colorado Springs Gazette oppose it.

Initial polls indicated its promise of some local property tax relief and more money targeted at public schools favored its passage.

But voters are likely to see several opposition advertisements in the news media in the next several days. Opponents say the property tax relief is minimal and this is a Democratic Party power grab to take away your TABOR refunds and grant long-term additional powers to the state legislature.

TABOR restrictions that limit the size of Colorado state revenues have become a semi-sacred cause for fiscal conservatives. They favor limited government and are especially disturbed by a Colorado state government dominated by, in their opinion, big-spending Democrats.

Whether Proposition HH wins or loses will depend on how moderates and independent voters decide. These voters often vote “no” or don’t bother to vote when a ballot issue is long, confusing and full of complex financial details.

Few voters will be able to calculate their benefits and losses that will result from this measure. Part of this is because no one knows how the economy will perform going forward for the next 10 years. And it is hard to calculate accurately what our home values and assessments will be over the next decade.

We believe Proposition HH is likely to be too confusing for the independent voters who will cast the deciding votes. Yet, it might be close.

It is true homeowners around Colorado are fearful their property taxes are going to go up too high. But it is also true that people really liked their TABOR refunds this past year. Those refunds will go away in a year or so if Proposition HH becomes law.

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We know in advance most Democrats will vote “yes” on Proposition HH and most Republicans will vote against it. For the rest, your vote probably depends on your answer to the following two questions:

1. Are you willing to give up your TABOR refunds for the next 10 years? In some years that might not be so much, yet in other years it might run as high as a few thousand dollars.
2.  Do you want your TABOR refund money instead to be spent, at least 80%, on additional funding for K-12 public schools?

If your answer to both questions is “yes,” you are likely to vote “yes” on Proposition HH.

If your answer to either question is “no,” you will probably vote “no” on this ballot measure. There are lots of other things going on in Proposition HH, but we feel they are mainly a distraction from the two major questions we raised above.

Proposition HH lifts the state’s annual revenue limit by 1% for 10 years, thereby reducing the amounts in TABOR refunds. It reduces the rate of local property taxes for 10 years. It reimburses some local governments for lost property taxes. It sets out a small amount of funds to help people pay their rent.

Those are minor issues compared to giving up your TABOR refunds for 10 years and putting most of that money in the state public school fund.

TABOR, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, was a state constitutional amendment adopted by the voters in 1992 that set limits on state tax revenues. If the state’s economy expands faster than population growth or inflation, the additional tax money collected from the economic expansion must be returned to the taxpayers. That additional money is called the “TABOR refund.”

TABOR also provides that citizens can vote to give their TABOR refund to the state to use for other specified purposes. Under Proposition HH, your TABOR refunds from now until 2032 will mainly be devoted to public education and not put in your wallet.

For us, Proposition HH comes down to this: There are reports at this time of many vacancies in the teaching staff at public schools because of low pay for hard work. It is also said teachers are leaving Colorado to take jobs in nearby states that pay more money. We believe that along with public safety, top-quality public schools have to be our top priority. 

We will miss not being able to add the annual TABOR refund to our personal bank accounts, yet we believe the need to spend more money on Colorado’s public schools should be the deciding factor here.

Proposition II – Retain Nicotine Tax Revenue in Excess of Blue Book Estimate

This is a second “TABOR refund” item. It would take tax money that would be refunded to cigarette and tobacco suppliers and spend it on preschool programs throughout Colorado.

The amount of money involved is substantial – $24 million. It is not your TABOR refund being diverted to help every young child in Colorado go to preschool. It is the tobacco industry’s TABOR refund being put to a public purpose.

Proposition II also maintains the current tax rates on cigarettes and tobacco. Those taxes are scheduled to go down if Proposition II is not adopted by the voters.

Unless you own or work for a tobacco company, we see little reason not to vote for this ballot issue. You get to give away someone else’s money (the tobacco industry’s) to support a widely popular public program (free preschool for all elementary school students).

Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy are news columnists who write about Colorado and national politics.