Ahead of its official launch Saturday, the campaign to rally Denver voters to support a nearly $1 billion bond package on the Nov. 7 ballot has plenty of cash to spend — $1.3 million.
That means voters will be hearing plenty about from the Our Denver committee, from their TV screens to their doorsteps.
Mayor Michael Hancock and west Denver City Councilman Paul López are expected to be on hand for the campaign’s event at 10 a.m. Saturday outside the Rude Recreation Center, 2855 W Holden Place. The center is in the Sun Valley neighborhood and located near two projects that would benefit from bond money — the later phases of the “Re-imagine Play” improvements to Paco Sanchez Park and reconstruction of West 13th Avenue.
“It will be a good kickoff for the next eight weeks,” Jake Martin, Our Denver’s campaign manager, said about the event.
Seven bond questions
When mail ballots go out in mid-October, city voters will be asked to approve seven questions, labeled 2A through 2G, for seven project categories: transportation and mobility ($431 million), cultural facilities ($116.9 million), a new outpatient health clinic for the Denver Health and Hospital Authority ($75 million), public safety ($77 million), libraries ($69.3 million), parks and recreation ($151.6 million), and other public facilities ($16.5 million).
Hancock and say the project list is full of needed repairs as well as new projects. They argue it’s responsible, especially since voters’ approval would not result in an increase in the property tax rate. Instead, the new bonds would be repaid using a previous tax hike that has repaid the last large city bond package — 2007’s $550 million Better Denver Bonds — though property valuations have risen sharply since then.
No organized opposition has formed.
Big donors have buttressed campaign
Our Denver’s latest campaign finance report, filed Tuesday, shows that it has raised nearly as much as the $1.6 million amassed by the 2007 campaign.
It collected $694,477 in August, bringing its to just over $1.5 million. The campaign has spent about $174,000 on a small but growing staff, outside research, consultants and other expenses, the new report shows. That leaves more than $1.3 million in the bank.
Donors have included nonprofit groups, developers, city contractors and some individuals, plus sizeable contributions connected to the cultural institutions with projects on the bond list, including the Denver Zoo and the Denver Art Museum.
August’s haul included three six-figure contributions: $100,000 from M.D.C. Holdings, connected to Richmond American Homes; $113,477 from the Denver Botanic Gardens (which has a project listed); and $150,000 from J. Landis Martin, a private equity firm founder and philanthropist who, with his wife, has also (a project that by the bond).
Major project list for the proposed 2017 bond package:
Our Denver’s August 2017 campaign finance report: