The camps battling over November’s budget-reform measures unrolled their first television ads Tuesday and disclosed they have enough money to make the debate increasingly visible through Election Day.
Vote Yes on C&D pulled in $1.2 million last month, according to a financial report filed Tuesday. That brings the campaign’s total to more than $3 million.
Vote No; It’s Your Dough raised almost $23,000, according to its report. That brings its total raised to about $130,000.
The yes campaign spent at least $1.5 million on its first TV ad. The spot features Republican Gov. Bill Owens talking about the importance of passing the referendums.
Referendum C asks voters to give up an estimated $3.6 billion in refunds over five years that would otherwise be refunded to them under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
Its companion measure, Referendum D, asks voters to allow government to take out $2.1 billion in loans to pay largely for road and school improvements.
“A glitch in TABOR is penalizing us for the recession and slowing our economic recovery,” Owens says in the commercial. “They (the ballot measures) fix the glitch in TABOR by earmarking dollars the state already collects for education, roads and health care. Without a tax increase.”
Opponents’ statewide television ad says Referendum C would cost the average family $3,200, which could pay for gasoline for a year and a half.
The ad, paid for by the Colorado Club for Growth Issue Committee, says Referendum C is a permanent tax increase. The committee’s financial reports were not available Tuesday.
A number of smaller groups have also started raising money.
Republican and former state Senate President John Andrews said his opposition group, Backbone Issue Committee, spent about $2,000 on a small radio ad and phone calls. He and his company funded the activity, Andrews said, and will report its financials Thursday.
Three smaller groups have formed to support the measure: Larimer for C&D, La Plata County – Yes on C&D and Be the Change for C&D Committee. The Larimer and La Plata groups have raised several thousand dollars for local campaigning, officials said.
The Be the Change committee has raised about $15,000 and hopes to reach $25,000 to campaign along the Front Range, said Adam Dunstone, executive director of Be the Change USA. The main donors are millionaires Rutt Bridges and Jared Polis and billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, Dunstone said.
Vote Yes on C&D, the statewide campaign, saw contributions that included $153,049 from the Colorado Health and Hospital Association, $50,000 from HealthOne and $50,000 from Kaiser Permanente.
Vote No; It’s Your Dough took in $1,000 from Sean McCarthy of Pueblo West and $500 each from Steven Hickox of Denver and Alfred Watson of Centennial.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
