News

On Mondays in the run-up to the November Election, KOTO News will be covering this year’s Ballot initiatives. Our coverage kicks off today with a profile of Proposition ii which addresses funding for childcare.

As back-to-school season hit Colorado a month or so ago, a new program opened doors for the state’s four year-olds: September 2023 marks the first month of Universal Pre-K for Colorado families. Maureen Randall has been organizing the program’s rollout in our region with the child care advocacy group Bright Futures.

“In San Miguel County, all of our providers who offer care to four-year olds have participated, and we have forty-five four-year-olds who have been matched with those providers,” Randall says.

The state’s universal Pre-K program came out of a ballot measure passed in the November 2020 election known as Proposition EE.

“And that taxes nicotine products to fund public schools, housing initiatives, and UPK” explains Randall.

The state estimated it would collect a chunk of change from nicotine sales in order to fund its new pre-K program. Continues Randall: “they [the state] have collected significantly more in revenue than was initially estimated.”

The state actually collected almost 25 million dollars more than it anticipated, a substantial windfall for supporting early childhood education in colorado.

But, rules around taxation complicate the picture. The state has a taxpayer bill of rights, known as TABOR, which states that if Colorado issues a new tax and collects more than it anticipated, it must return the excess funds to the group affected unless Colorado voters allow the state to keep the money.

This leads to a new ballot measure appearing on the ballot this November called Proposition ii.

“So here is where Prop ii comes in,” Randall explains. “Voters need to vote whether they are going to return the money to nicotine companies or keep the money in early childhood education.”

Randall points out that the funds will not be returned to taxpayers in Colorado, but rather the nicotine companies whose products were taxed in the first place.

“So if voters vote ‘yes’ on Prop ii they will keep that money in early childhood education. If they vote against Prop ii then the state will need to return the excess funds of 23.65 million dollars back to nicotine companies”

Cathy Barber, the Strong Start Coordinator with Bright Futures, says strengthening early childhood education in our area is a matter of directing more resources — and more livable wages — to our pre-K teachers.

“As we are increasing our daily tuition to closer meet the needs of the staff and employers of these programs, we need more funds to offset those costs, so UPK is so beneficial,” Barber says.

The program has directed roughly $25,000 in funding to San Miguel county providers and families in September alone. 45 families are participating in the UPK program, receiving 15 hours or more of free pre-K every week. Strong Start provides a stream of funding to another 60 or so families in the county.

“So it’s over a third of our families currently enrolled in childcare who are able to tap into additional funding to offset the high costs” Barber says.

Proposition ii will appear on the ballot this fall. This story is part of KOTO’s election coverage.