Uncertainty and Chaos for Local Communities

By undermining local control and imposing state mandates, Initiatives 50 and 108 threaten every community in Colorado, from big cities like Denver and Colorado Springs to small towns like Sterling and Fort Morgan. Local communities will be left scrambling to adapt, facing unpredictable changes that threaten the well-being of all residents, threatening funding for schools, parks, libraries, and everything else we love about our communities.

Massive Funding Cuts

Initiative 108 alone would slash $3 billion from local communities in just the first year, forcing devastating cuts to essential services and the things that make our communities special. The resulting financial chaos would jeopardize education, healthcare, and public safety, leaving our town and cities vulnerable and underfunded. The promise of the state picking up the tab is unreliable, creating a situation where no one can be sure of the future of their own communities.

An Unimaginable Double Whammy

The combined impact of 50 & 108 passing is an unimaginable double whammy for our schools and communities. The negative impact of these policies would be felt in every sector of our economy, at every level of our state, with small, rural towns getting hit hardest. There’s absolutely no guarantee that communities will be able to restore the drastic cuts made by 50 & 108, because the state government ultimately decides if and how to address local cuts. Local control over our own communities is the Colorado Way, and leaving our towns and cities to beg the state government to backfill these drastic cuts pits us all against each other at a time when we need to come together to solve our biggest challenges.