Fort Collins residents will decide 4 items on the ballot this November

On this November's election ballot, residents of Fort Collins will have some issues of city relevance to vote on, in addition to who they want to be president and represent them at the state and local level.

Four items have been referred to the ballot by City Council: a sales tax extension to fund street repairs and three charter amendments related to the way elections, recalls, initiatives and referendums are done.

Here's what to know about them:

This sales tax funds roadwork. It could be extended 20 years

The Street Maintenance Program pays for repairs to street materials like asphalt, concrete and seal coat. This includes streets, sidewalks, ramps, medians, bridges and traffic signals.

A quarter-cent tax has been in place for decades to fund some of that work, and it's set to expire at the end of 2025. The city is asking voters for a 20-year extension this time, longer than the 10 years it's usually renewed.

When the tax extension was last passed in 2015 and 2005, voters approved it with 85% and 72% support, respectively.

If passed, the tax is estimated to bring in $220 million over its lifetime. The $11 million in brings it annually isn't enough to cover the entire street maintenance program, which is about $21 million each year, according to a staff presentation at the July 16 meeting. The rest of the money comes from either the general fund or from the Harmony Reserves fund.

The city is asking for the extension now so it can plan ahead for the next budget cycle, said Ginny Sawyer, the city's project and policy manager. If the tax extension were rejected, it would give the city time to figure out what to do.

"We'll know if we have those funds, if our voters support that," Sawyer said. "And if they don't, we'll know we've got some work to do."

The tax amounts to 25 cents on a $100 purchase. Most grocery items are exempt from the sales tax.

The ballot language this time will include additional detail noting the funds can be used for traffic control infrastructure:

"The tax extension shall be used to pay the costs of planning, design, right-of-way acquisition, incidental upgrades and other costs associated with the repair and renovation of city streets, including, but not limited to, curbs, gutters, bridges, sidewalks, parkways, shoulders and medians, and traffic control infrastructure."

The words "traffic control infrastructure" weren't included in the language in the two previous ballot initiatives, but Chief Financial Officer Travis Storin said the city has determined the spending on traffic infrastructure is allowable under the ballot language, and some of the money has been used for it in the past.

Sawyer said the addition is meant for transparency about everything that could be funded by the tax.

City Council member Kelly Ohlson, who voted against approving the tax extension on July 16, said he took issue with using the money for traffic signals.

"I just don't understand why we don't give the whole $10 or $11 million to the street maintenance," Ohlson said. "It's just more honest government.

"Most people wouldn't think traffic signals would fall under a street maintenance program," he said.

Council will take a final vote on referring the item to the ballot when it returns from a three-week break on Aug. 20.

3 charter amendments aim to clean up election processes

Three articles of the City Charter lay out how citizens can have a voice when it comes to city council members and the ordinances they pass through elections, recalls, ballot initiatives and referendums — like the 2022 and 2023 land use code repeals.

Three amendments to the charter proposed for the November ballot would "address ambiguities, inconsistencies, and process complexity," according to a presentation by City Clerk Delynn Coldiron to City Council on July 2, including modernizing language and adjusting processes.

The amendments include some housekeeping items, but also some timeline and process changes. They would:

• Modernize language to make wording more clear and gender neutral.
• Update the time elements for deadlines to clarify calendar days and business days, along with how deadlines are affected by any holidays, weekends and closures.
• Change the timelines that are followed when a citizen seeks a recall, ballot initiative or referendum. Still, in most cases, they will not reduce the amount of time citizens have to pursue a petition, Coldiron said. In fact, citizens would have more time to gather signatures for recalls. It would also give the city clerk more time to determine whether a petition effort has been successful and shorten the protest process.
• Rewrite sections in an effort to make the document simpler and easier to follow.
• One of the timeline changes would remove the cure period for the petition process. Curing allows voters to correct problems with their ballots in order to have their votes counted. Coldiron said the cure periods are inconsistent across the recall, initiative and referendum sections, and in some cases, it's not allowed at all, according to the Colorado Municipal Election Code. She said removing the cure period makes things predictable across processes, and it's rarely, if ever, been used. She also said the clerk's office is intentional about urging petitioners to collect at least one-third more signatures than they need to head off problems, Coldiron said.

The Coloradoan will dig into more of the the particulars of the charter amendments before it's time to vote, so stay tuned this fall.

What else is on the ballot this November?

Outside of the city, voters who reside in Larimer County will vote on:

• Who will be president and vice president of the United States.
• Who will represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives: In Larimer County, that could be in either Congressional District 2, 4 or 8, depending on where you live.
• Who will represent them at the Colorado Capitol: In the Colorado House of Representatives, all seats are up for election. Locally, two Senate seats are up for election: District 14 in Fort Collins and District 23 in Larimer County.
• Who will fill the 8th Judicial District Attorney's seat.
• Who will fill seats for the State Board of Education and CU Board of Regents.
• Who will fill two seats for Larimer County commissioner: District 2 and District 3
• Who will be Larimer County clerk and recorder.
• Statewide ballot issues. The ballot is not yet final.
• Of note: Poudre School District is considering referring a property tax increase to the ballot.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins residents will decide 4 items on the ballot this November