Gunnison – Backers of this fall’s ballot measures to let state government keep more tax money have targeted voters on the Western Slope – taking the case from the boardrooms of Denver to the main streets of rural Colorado.
The effort is designed to blunt the impact of “no” votes in some of the state’s most conservative districts, where voters have an instinctive skepticism of big government and smooth-talking politicians.
To convince those voters, supporters of Referendums C and D are making road trips across the state to talk about West Nile virus outbreaks in Grand Junction, higher tuition rates at Gunnison’s Western State College and low-cost medicine for poor residents of Glenwood Springs.
Opponents are hoping that the regional distrust of Front Range lawmakers will boost their side.
“People out here are quite independent,” said Rep. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, who opposes the ballot measures. “I think there is a lot of skepticism, and the proponents have a high bar that has not been crossed.”
The proponents’ rural and Western Slope strategy is taken directly from the playbook of U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and it’s a sign that both sides expect a close vote Nov. 1.
Rural Colorado and the Western Slope are often neglected in statewide elections because the Front Range typically accounts for 80 percent of the votes cast. Lose the Front Range, and you usually lose the election.
But Salazar reinvigorated the role of rural voters. To win election to the Senate last fall, Salazar avoided the trouncing that Democrats usually get outside the Front Range. In fact, he won some counties on the Western Slope and stayed competitive in others.
“If you completely ignore them or you don’t compete out there, you’re handing the other side some votes,” said Jim Carpenter, who ran Salazar’s successful campaign.
That strategy may have worked for a politician who played the hometown boy touring the state in an old pickup truck, wearing his white cowboy hat everywhere he went, slapping old friends on the back and making frequent pilgrimages to his family’s ranch in the San Luis Valley.
Tough pocketbook issue
But a ballot measure – especially one that asks voters to give up potential tax rebates – is a tougher sell. Many Western Slope residents remain wary of politicians promising a brighter future for them if the ballot measures are approved.
Mike Saunders, a Gunnison carpenter who says he builds “rich people’s houses,” opposes Referendums C and D.
“I’m going to vote against it,” Saunders said while drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer at the Alamo Cafe and Bar on Main Street in Gunnison. “There’s nothing in it for the West Slope. Government already gets enough money.”
Such views make counties on the Western Slope reliably conservative votes.
Last year, 61 percent of voters statewide approved a higher tobacco tax to pay for health-care programs. But in 28 counties – most of them rural – the nays outnumbered the yeas.
“There are pockets of strong conservative ideology,” said Reeves Brown, executive director of Club 20, an influential group representing 20 western Colorado counties.
Salazar overcame the odds in many of those areas. He still lost places like Montrose and Delta counties, but he won Alamosa, Conejos and Garfield counties.
Salazar, who supports the referendums, said the supporters of C and D need to duplicate his performance for the campaign to stand a chance of winning. Most polls suggest a close race, although supporters claim to have a 9-percentage-point statewide lead in recent polls.
“I think they need to get as many counties as possible, and in the counties they don’t win, they need to minimize the loss,” Salazar said. “Even in places like Montrose County, they need to put in an effort there.”
The success of the C and D campaigns hinges on whether voters will be more concerned about the institutions in their towns or the refunds they will lose if the state keeps more taxpayer money.
Referendum C would suspend for five years the spending limits imposed on state government by the constitution’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Most taxpayers would give up an average of $491 in refunds that would be triggered by those spending limits.
The Bell Action Network, a Denver-based think tank that has been pushing for changes to the state budget system for years, aims to show that the money is an investment in all parts of the state.
“People in small towns have a sense of community,” said Wade Buchanan, president of the Bell Action Network, before the presentation in Gunnison on Thursday evening. “In some ways, it’s much easier to have these conversations with people here because they know the institutions so well.”
The faces of the issue
In Grand Junction, public- health officials explained how funding for their agency dropped so low that workers were swamped when an outbreak of West Nile virus hit last year.
“West Nile virus had a huge impact, and we had only 127 cases,” said Sue Kiser, special- projects director for the Mesa County Public Health Department. “If we have anything bigger, good God, I don’t know how we’re going to do it.”
In Glenwood Springs, Dr. Chris Tonozzi said his clinic might cut back on providing medicine to needy patients. The program, which relies on state funding, costs $30,000 to $50,000 per year.
In Gunnison, Jay Helman, president of Western State College, said the failure of the ballot measures could force the school to raise tuition and further delay $10 million worth of construction projects on campus.
Helman said the college would lose $3.3 million in state funding if Referendum C fails. If that happens, the college’s only options would be to raise tuition or eliminate programs. Since the state’s budget crisis began in 2001, Western has raised tuition 22 percent, from $2,270 to $2,761.
That burden has already forced students like Shawn Hall to drop out.
The 24-year-old Gunnison resident was an art major with ambitions to become an airline pilot when he dropped out in 2004 because he could no longer afford the school.
Hall blames himself because he missed the deadline for filling out financial-aid forms, but the loss of a federal grant for low-income students made the school too expensive.
“My parents can’t afford to send me,” Hall said. “Tuition wasn’t bad, but when I was going to school, I couldn’t work enough to pay for it.”
Hall is now working as a manager at a McDonald’s in Gunnison, hoping to save enough money to go back to school. He’s also talking to military recruiters about joining the Air Force.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
