CoPIRG's Rex Wilmouth

Victory For Colorado on Referendum C

If you voted for, or perhaps also volunteered for, Referendum C last November, thank you.

Thanks to people like you, Colorado will be able to invest more of our taxpayer dollars into health care, higher education and road repair.

CoPIRG endorsed Referendum C because it was critical to helping Colorado recover from the economic downturn by providing a temporary “timeout” from Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) budget limits. As a consumer advocate, we look for issues that help the largest number of people in Colorado, without cutting funding for critical projects in the state.

During the recent recession, Colorado lost more than a hundred thousand jobs. Bankruptcy and mortgage-foreclosure rates reached their highest levels in a decade.

Referendum C will allow the state to fund the programs that would otherwise have been cut.

It is not the answer to all the state’s problems, but it will prevent cuts or even the elimination of otherwise vital protections to our safety as consumers and residents.

When voters approved Referendum C on Nov. 1, they approved retaining new revenues for five years to make necessary investments in health care, K-12 schools and higher education. For our state’s students, Referendum C makes available funds for Colorado’s state colleges.

Referendum C is one step in the Colorado Economic Recovery Plan, which has the bipartisan support of the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly and the governor, as well as a broad coalition including businesses, labor unions and more than 830 organizations statewide.

Along with our friends at Environment Colorado, who advocated Referendum C as a way to uphold environmental enforcement, we contributed to the passage of Referendum C, by knocking on doors, running phonebanks and organizing coalition support to pass the ballot initiative.

It’s one step towards Colorado’s budget recovery, but certainly not a cure-all for the problems in the state. With your generous support, we’ll pass the laws that make consumer protection and good government a more permanent part of living in Colorado.