Colorado Ballot Proposals Would End Property Taxes, Let Most Use Pot Read More: Colorado Ballot Proposals Would End Property Taxes, Let Most Use Pot

[bobandtorey]

A wave of ballot initiatives with subjects ranging from the elimination of property taxes to allowing 21-year-olds to carry concealed handguns without a permit have been filed in Colorado.

 

So far, there's only one initiative that's actually been approved for the November ballot, and that's Amendment 64, which would legalize limited possession of marijuana and allow for all people — not just those with doctors' permission — to buy it at pot shops.

 

It takes 86,105 valid signatures of Colorado voters to put a measure on the ballot, and that usually means effective petition circulators gather about twice that number of signatures. The process can easily cost six figures, which is why most initiatives never make

 

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the ballot.

 

That's to say nothing of the millions of dollars that sometimes get spent to sway voters to approve — or reject — a ballot measure.

 

At least two other marijuana-related initiatives are wending their way through the process. Initiative 40, which has had its petition format approved, deals with the elimination of fines and criminal penalties for pot possession, as does Initiative 70, which would eliminate all laws criminalizing marijuana and make it a constitutional right for anyone 21 or older to possess limited amounts of marijuana.

 

Twenty-one-year-olds also would get to carry concealed handguns — without a permit — under Initiative 74, which has had its title approved by the state's Title Setting Review Board.

 

The three-member panel makes sure initiatives comply with the state's single-subject rule.

 

The initiative would bar concealed weapons from school grounds, law enforcement agencies, prisons, jails, mental- health facilities, courthouses and government agency buildings. The measure, though, would still allow state and local governments "to limit the carrying of firearms."

 

Initiative 77 aims to end property taxes by 2017. The initiative says that if voters by the end of 2016 didn't approve different taxes to offset the elimination of property tax revenue, there would have to be "equivalent cuts in spending that shall not affect primary and secondary education, local law enforcement agencies or fire protection."

 

The initiative doesn't suggest how that feat might be achieved.

 

Initiative 75 would create an open primary and allow Colorado voters to cast ballots for any candidate in a primary election without regard to the voter's party affiliation.

 

Meanwhile, three initiatives, 67, 68 and 69 — which are essentially variants of one another — all would make it harder for lawmakers to repeal statutory initiatives. The trio of initiatives would require lawmakers to muster a three-fourths vote in each house to repeal or amend statutory initiatives, which lawmakers now can do with just a simple majority vote.

 

Other initiatives filed include:

 

• Yet another attempt at a "personhood" amendment.

 

• A measure that would require "proof of lawful presence" to obtain a Colorado driver's license.

 

• An initiative to declare Sept. 21, now recognized as International Peace Day, as Colorado Peace Day

 

Read more:Colorado ballot proposals would end property taxes, let most use pot - The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_20349434/colorado-ballot-proposals-would-end-property-taxes-let#ixzz1rSiIYwH0

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