Arapahoe County Election Colorado 2022
General Election Tuesday, November 8, 2022
If you live in Colorado, you may have started to get election information in the mail. That is because before certain people decided that having more people vote in a democracy is bad, Colorado passed election laws that not only allow for mail-in-voting, but they also automatically send every registered voter a ballot, without anyone even having to ask.
What Is on Arapahoe County Ballot in Colorado This Year?
In the state-wide Colorado general election in 2022, you have plenty of things to vote on including one of the Senators, all the congressmen, including the new 8th one, and a bunch of amendments and ballot initiatives. I cover those in a complete easy Colorado Voting guide here.
Of course, along with state elections are local elections. I live in Arapahoe County and my book just showed up, so let’s get into it.
First, if you’ve been in Colorado a while you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you are new or have spent the last several elections on the sidelines, here is Analysis of the 2022 Ballot Proposals for Arapahoe County. This black and white book printed in a cheap newspaper is just information. It is not a ballot. Those come later and are stiff cardstock.
Inside reads like lawyers wrote it because they did. Drafting laws is a legal skill just like trying personal liability cases or car accident cases in court.
That’s not super helpful for us that aren’t lawyers. Fortunately, there are others out there who can decipher legalese and obtuse legal sentence structure. We are technical writers.
It turns out that turning obtuse technical jargon and poorly written developer and engineer notes into an understandable format for non-technical audiences is very much the same skill as pulling out the mumbo jumbo from ballot initiatives. (We can do the same for court cases, lawsuits, statues, and regulations. Fun!)
For example, if you turn to page #9 in this thing you will come across this doosey
NOTICE OF ELECTION TO INCREASE TAXES/TO INCREASE DEBT ON A CITIZEN PEITITION/ON A REFFERRED MEASURE
Dense, huh? Fortunately, if you are willing to dig in a little bit you come out with.
You are voting on a new tax law that was put on the ballot by some group collecting signatures.
In this specific case the Ballot Language is a nightmare because of legal requirements. It says:
SHALL CITY OF CENTENNIAL TAXES BE INCREASSED ANNUALLY BY $1,050,000 IN THE FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR OF COLLECTION COMMENCING JANUARY 1,2023, AND BY WHATEVER AMOUNT IS RAISED ANUUALLY THEREAFTER, BY THE IMPOSITION OF A LODGING TAX AT THE RATE OF THREE AND ONE HALF PERECENT (3.5%) ON THE RENTAL FEE, PRICES, OR OTHER CONSIDERATION PAID OR CHARGED FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL (LESS THAN 30 CONSECUTIVE DAYS) OF ANY ROOM, RESIDENCE, ACCOMODATION OF SPACE IN ANY HOTEL, INN, BED AND BREAKFAST, OR ANY OTHER PLACE THAT PROVIDES SLEEPING ROOMS, SLEEPING FACILITIES, OR ACCOMMODATIONTS FOR CONSIDERATION LOCATED WITHIN THE CITY, WITH THE REVENUES OF SUCH TAX TO BE SPENT ON PROJECTS AND SERVICES ADDRESSING VISITOR IMPACT IN THE AREAS OF PULBIC SAFETY AND ANY OTHER LAWFUL MUNICIPAL PURPOSE, AND SHALL ALL REVENUES FROM SUCH TAXES AND ANY EARNINGS THEREON COLLECTED, RETAINED AND SPENT AS A VOTER-APPROVED REVENUE CHANGE WITHOUT LIMITIATION OR CONDITION CONTAIND IN ARTICLE X SECTION 20 OF THE COLORADO CONSITITUION OR ANY OTHER LAW?
If you look closely, it is literally one sentence. You can’t blame anyone for giving up on what this means, but it’s actually fairly simple. There is a good number of words at the beginning that are probably worthless for the average reader. They are required by law with the hope of seeing big numbers like that will make people stop voting for what seem like small taxes. Let’s break down the rest of this not-quite-run-on sentence.
— So, the city estimates they will collect $100,050,000 the first year.
— This will go into effect on January 1, 2023.
— This will create a 3.5% lodging tax
— The next third of this is just trying to tighten up the law so nobody weasels out by saying they don’t count as lodging. Note the specific call out to short-term rentals, so yes, this applies to AirBNB and stuff.
— The next part is also legally required. It says what the money can be spent on. It’s broad on purpose. First it can be spent on public safety issues stemming from visitors. That covers a lot of ground, but it doesn’t really matter because it can also be spent on “any lawful municipal purpose,” so anything that costs the city money.
— And the last part is the Tabor exception. Tabor limits the amount and growth of taxes in Colorado unless the tax is specifically excepted from those limits by voter approval. This says, “Here you go. Voter approval.” This really makes sense for a tax like this that will grow based on how travel grows and how many hotels and stuff are built, not some yearly percentage.
Anyway, don’t get lost in all this. If you have any questions, I’m happy to parse them out, and if you have any tricky technical writing projects, I’m your man.
