One of the worst-kept secrets about recently defeated Proposition HH on Colorado’s Nov. 7 statewide ballot was that its purported “property-tax relief” for homeowners was really a back door tax hike for schools.

It asked voters to give up their refunds of excess state tax collections, letting the state keep the cash for assorted purposes including public ed.

Coloradans got wise to the bait-and-shaft proposal, which had been placed on the ballot by the Legislature. Voters didn’t just reject Prop. HH; they booted it out the window and over a cliff. It failed by a margin of 20 percentage points.

It was hardly the first unsuccessful bid to squeeze the state’s taxpayers for more education funding. Even less deceptive attempts to get Colorado voters to pony up for schools haven’t fared well on the statewide ballot.

For example, Proposition CC in 2019 – like HH, it also was the handiwork of the Legislature – met with a similar fate. It would have let the state keep revenue collected in excess of the state constitution’s spending cap and use it for transportation and education.

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Nevertheless, voters around the state often enough do agree to give schools more money – so long as the request comes from their local schools. It’s the state government with which voters have a problem.

An enlightening analysis by The Gazette’s news staff this week underscored that state-vs.-local distinction. The report noted that, despite Prop. HH’s crushing defeat last week, voters approved more than $311 million in local tax increases for education on the same ballot.

Voters were discerning, of course; they approved about half of the 29 local school initiatives seeking to raise more than $1 billion in additional revenue.

Indeed, seven counties, including Douglas and El Paso, put multiple ballot initiatives before voters. Some passed; some failed. Those same voters – in almost all counties – turned thumbs down on the state’s request for more tax dollars for schools.

“People do not trust state government,” political consultant Tyler Sandberg told The Gazette’s news team. Local measures often fair better with Colorado voters, Sandberg said, because the money is being spent closer to home, where taxpayers can see schools being built or teachers getting pay raises.

In other words, voters have greater faith in institutions they can keep an eye on. They can ensure their taxes will benefit their kids and their community. Parents and the rest of taxpayers appreciate the herculean efforts by their children’s teachers at school and often enough are sympathetic when it’s clear those teachers could use a raise.

The same goes for other kinds of expenditures the public believes will aid classroom learning or otherwise sustain their local schools. A tax hike to pay off a bond for a new gym, for example.

But shoveling more money into the state government’s coffers – ultimately, to be spent as the state Legislature sees fit – just doesn’t cut it with a large percentage of the electorate. That’s so even when state lawmakers promise to spend the extra money on a high priority such as schools. To voters, it’s just another promise by politicians, to be taken with a grain of salt.

“It’s for the kids – it’s for the schools” falls on many voters’ ears like another bid to grow the state government at taxpayers’ expense.

And the public says, “no, thanks.” It’s a lesson – meted out once again in last week’s election – the state’s elected officials have yet to learn.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board