Colorado voters approve plan to divert $200M a year in existing tax revenue to land management

Proposition 137 has passed, allowing existing sales tax revenue collected from sporting goods purchases — an estimated $200 million annually — to fund conservation and wildfire rehabilitation and mitigation. 

The Associated Press called the race for Proposition 137 at 10:12 a.m. Friday, with 51.63% of the votes counted in favor of the measure and 48.37% opposed.

And it was a diverse collection of Coloradans voting in favor of the ballot measure. In just about every recent Colorado election, the split between rural and urban is clearly etched. The Front Range counties are one color and the smaller population counties are another.

But not with Proposition 137, which saw a rare alignment of populous urban counties with rural mountain communities. Adams and Arapahoe joined Alamosa and Archuleta. El Paso and Pitkin counties aligned. Mineral and Park were on board with Summit and Eagle. Boulder and Garfield counties lined up together in support of Proposition 137. Not surprisingly, many counties with an abundance of public lands backed the ballot measure. 

Proposition 137, with its promise for better care of public lands, united a swath of the middle of the state, aligning millions of residents of the urban Front Range with thousands of residents in the mountains and on the Western Slope.

Proposition 137 will divert $175 million to $180 million a year at first and potentially more in the future in already collected sales taxes on sporting goods equipment. The money will be split between state-led wildfire mitigation and rehabilitation work and conservation by Great Outdoors Colorado, with small portions directed toward the Colorado outdoor recreation office and a grant program expanding access to the outdoors. 

Proposition 137 exempts the sporting goods sales tax revenue from the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, cap on government growth and spending, which is calculated based on inflation and population changes. But the legislature could bypass Proposition 137’s spending directives in tough budget years when the TABOR surplus is small. 

The measure directs the legislature to distribute $83 million a year to Great Outdoors Colorado, nearly doubling the conservation group’s annual distribution from the Colorado Lottery. Another $83 million will be split between the Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado State Forest Service for wildfire risk reduction and rehabilitation of watersheds damaged by wildfire. The state currently spends about $16.4 million on wildfire risk reduction and another $5 million a year on restoring burned landscapes. 

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The Colorado Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Equity Grant Program will each get about $4.5 million a year under Proposition 137.

The measure marks one of the largest-ever investments in Colorado’s public lands at a time when the federal government is slashing spending on land management. 

Perry Will is a Garfield County commissioner who spent 40 years as a wildlife officer before serving in the Colorado legislature representing seven Western Slope counties. The Republican said Colorado’s natural resources, wildlife, water, forests and outdoor recreation legacy “don’t recognize the political divide between Front Range and the ‘best slope.’”

“Shared values transcend political boundaries, conservation isn’t partisan and I think people want to see their dollars accomplish something tangible,” he said. “I think 137 was a good reminder that things we have in common as Coloradans are bigger than the things that divide us politically.”

Throughout his nearly 50 years of public service in Colorado, Will said he’s worked to prove conservation is not the domain of a single political party or region.    

“It is something we all have a stake in,” he said. “We might disagree on politics, taxes, and a whole host of other issues. But you won’t find many of us who don’t want clean water, healthy forests, robust wildlife populations and a place for our kids and grandkids to enjoy what this great state has to offer.”

Kevin Bommer, the executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, has seen this level of agreement across the state’s cities and towns for decades. 

“It’s great to see it at a state level. This is about water, forests, wildfires and supporting outdoor recreation and those are issues that unite,” said Bommer, who has worked at the league since 1999. “Everywhere that is green on that map, they are all feeling those issues. I think people read that question on the ballot and they didn’t think, ‘Boy, this could hamstring the Joint Budget Committee.’ They see real needs and a way to meet those needs without increasing taxes.”

Supporters of the measure included a long list of national environmental groups and elected leaders, including Colorado Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Phil Weiser and former Secretary of the Interior and former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, a fellow Democrat. 

Opponents included the Colorado Democratic Party, which expressed concerns that the measure could impact lawmakers’ ability to address budget shortfalls in lean years. 

Nonpartisan legislative analysts estimate Proposition 137 could, at first, reduce TABOR refunds by $26 to $83 for single taxpayers and $52 for $166 for joint filers. 

Luis Benitez, the first director of the Colorado outdoor recreation office, recently chided Democrats for their party’s opposition to Proposition 137. Speaking at the third annual DemWest rally on Oct. 16 — a gathering for Western Slope Democrats — he scolded the party for opposing the measure. 

Benitez, who became the nation’s second director of a state outdoor recreation office in 2016 under then Gov. John Hickenlooper, said Proposition 137 is “the most significant piece of OREC legation we have ever seen in our lifetimes. Beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

“I never in a million years thought that the thing standing in the way of this legislation would be the Democratic Party,” he said. “We sell the outdoors in Colorado and now the bill has come due.”

The Protect Colorado’s Land and Water and Prevent Wildfires committee raised $6.2 million to support Proposition 137, according to the latest filings with the Colorado Secretary of State. That includes more than $2.75 million from The Nature Conservancy, $525,000 from the New York-based Environmental Defense Action Fund, $524,000 from the WRA Action Fund in Boulder and more than $450,000 from Western Resource Advocates in Boulder.

Opponents of the measure, who worry the increased funding could spur widespread logging in Colorado’s forests, raised $12,965.

Supporters of Proposition 137 claimed the win nearly one day before the Associated Press officially called the contest. 

“The passage of Proposition 137 is a powerful step forward for Colorado, helping protect the lands and waters that sustain us and ensuring future generations can enjoy the health, economic, and community benefits of the outdoors,” said Jim Petterson, with the Trust for Public Land, in a statement. “This measure helps protect the places that make Colorado special while strengthening our ability to meet the challenges of wildfire, drought, and a growing population. This is what it looks like to invest in Colorado’s future.”

This is a developing story that will be updated.