2008 Colorado Election

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Here are all the amendments and referendums as they appear on my mail in ballot from Jefferson county. I’ll link any subsequent posts on these amendments and referendums as they are posted by the authors on this site.

Amendment 46
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning a prohibition against discrimination by the state, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the state from discrimination against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting; allowing exceptions to the prohibition when bona fide qualifications based based on sex are reasonably necessary or when action is necessary to establish or maintain eligibility for federal funds; preserving the validity of court orders or consent decrees in effect at the time the measure becomes effective; defining “state” to include the state of Colorado, agencies or departments of the state, public institutions of higher education, political subdivisions, or governmental instruments of or within the state; and making portions of the measure found invalid severable from the remainder of the measure?

Distinguished Bean

Amendment 47
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning participation in a labor organization as a condition of employment, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting an employer from requiring that a person be a member and pay any moneys to a labor organization or to any other third party in lieu of payment to a labor organization and creating a misdemeanor criminal penalty for a person who violates the provisions of the section?

Darth B’Stard

Amendment 48
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution defining the term “person” to include any human being from the moment of fertilization as “person” is used in those provisions of the Colorado constitution relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law?

Darth B’Strad

Amendment 49
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning deductions from governmental payroll systems, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting a governmental payroll systems from taking a payroll deductions required by federal law, tax withholdings, judicial liens and garnishments, deductions for individuals or groups health benefits or other insurance, deductions for pension or investment programs, and charitable deductions?

Amendment 50
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning concerning voter-approved revisions to limited gaming, and, in connection therewith, allowing the local voters in Central City, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek to extend casino hours of operation, approved games to include roulette and craps or both, and maximum single bets up to $100; adjusting distributions to current gaming fund recipients for growth in gaming tax revenue due to voter-approved revisions in gaming; distributing 78% of the remaining gaming tax revenue from this amendment for student financial aid and classroom instruction at community colleges according to the proportion of their respective student enrollments, and 22% for local gaming impacts Gilpin and teller counties and the cities of Central City, Black Hawk, and Cripple Creek according to the proportion of increased tax revenue from voter approved revisions in each city or county; and requiring any increase in gaming taxes from the levels imposed as of July 1, 2008 to be approved at a statewide election election, if local voters in one or more cities have approved and revisions to limited gaming?

Distinguished Bean

Amendment 51
Shall state taxes be increased $186.1 million annually after full implementation by an amendment to the Colorado revised statues considerings an increase in the state sales and use tax to provide funding for long-term services for persons with development disabilities, and, in connection therewith, increasing the state sales and use tax beginning on July 1, 2009, By one-tenth of one percent in each of the next two fiscal years; permitting the state to retain and spend all revenues from the new tax, notwithstanding the state spending limit; requiring an amount equal to the net revenue from the new tax to be deposited in the newly created developmental disabilities long-term services cash fund; requiring the money in the fund to be used to provide long-term services for persons with developmental disabilities; and prohibiting reductions in the level of state appropriations in the annual general appropriation bill existing on the effective date of this measure for long-term services for persons with developmental disabilities?

Darth B’Strad

Amendment 52
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the allocation of revenues from the state severance tax imposed minerals and mineral fuels other than oil and shale that are extracted in the state, and, in connection therewith, for fiscal years commencing on or after July 1 2008, requiring half of the revenues to be credited to the local government severance tax fund and the remaining revenues to be credited first to the severance tax trust fund until an annually calculated limit is reached and then to a new Colorado transportation trust fund, which my be used only to fund the construction, maintenance, and supervision of public highways in the state, giving first priority to reducing congestion on the Interstate 70 corridor?

Darth B’strad

Amendment 53
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Revised Statutes extending the criminal liability of a business entity to it’s executive officials for the entity’s failure to perform a specific duty imposed by law, and, in connection therewith, conditioning and executive officials liability upon his or her knowledge of the duty imposed by law and of the business entity’s failure to perform such duty; and allowing executive official who discloses to attorney general all facts know to the official concerning a business’s criminal conduct to use that disclosure as an affirmative defense to criminal charges?

Amendment 54
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning restrictions on campaign contributions, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the holder of contracts totaling $100,000 or more, as indexed for inflation, awarded by the state or local governments without competitive bidding (”sole source government contracts”), including certain collective bargaining agreements, from making a contribution for the benefit of a political party or candidate for elective office during the term of the contracts and for 2 years thereafter; disqualifying a person who makes a contribution in a ballot issue; and imposing liability and penalties on contracts holders, cretin of their owners, officers and directors, and government officers and directors, and government officials for violations of the amendment?

Darth B’Strad

Amendment 55
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning cause for employee discharge or suspension, and, in connection therewith, requiring an employer to establish and document just cause for the discharge or suspension of a full-time employee; defining “just cause” to mean specified types of employee misconduct and substandard job performance, the filing of bankruptcy by the employer, or documented economic circumstances that directly and adversely affect the employer; exempting from the just cause requirements business that employ fewer than twenty employees, nonprofit organizations that employ fewer than one thousand employees, governmental entities, and employees who are converted by a collective bargaining agreement that requires just cause for discharge or suspension; allowing an employee who believes he or she was discharged or suspended without just cause to file a civil action in state district court; allowing a court that finds an employee’s discharge or suspension to be in violation of this amendment to award reinstatement in the employee’s former job, back wages, damages, or any combination thereof; and allowing the court to award attorneys fees to the prevailing party?

Darth B’Strad

Amendment 56
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning health care coverage for employees, and, in connection therewith, requiring employers that regularly employ twenty or more employees to provide major medical health care coverage to their employees; excluding the state and it’s political subdivisions from the definition of “employer”; allowing an employer to provide such health care coverage either directly through a carrier, company, or organization or acting as a self-insurer, or indirectly by paying premiums to a health insurance authority to be created pursuant of this measure that will contract with health insurance carriers, companies, and organizations to coverage to employees; providing that employees shall not be required to pay more than twenty percent of the premium for such coverage for themselves and more than thirty percent of such coverage for the employee dependents; financing the costs of administering the health insurance authority and health care coverage provide through the authority and, if necessary, such revenue sources other than the state general fund as determined by the general assembly; directed the general assembly to enact such laws as are necessary to implement the measure; and setting the effective date of the measure to be no later than November 1, 2009?

Amendment 57
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Revised Statues concerning a safe workplace for employees, and, in connection therewith, requiring employers to provide safe and healthy workplaces for their employees; restricting such requirements to employers regularly employing ten or more employees in the state; and enabling employees who are injured because of an employer’s violation of the requirement to file suit in district court with the right to a jury trial, to recover compensatory and exemplary damages, actual past or future pecuniary losses, and noneconomic losses including pain and suffering, emotional distress, inconvenience, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment life, but prohibiting injured employees from recovering and damages for which that employee already received compensation pursuant to the “Workers’ Compensation Act of Colorado”?

Amendment 58
Shall state taxes be increased $321.4 million annually by an amendment to the Colorado revised statues concerning the severance tax on oil and gas extracted in the state, and, in connection therewith, for taxable years commencing on or after January 1, 2009, charging the tax to 5% of total gross income from the sale of oil and gas extracted in the state when the amount of annual gross income is at least $300,000; eliminating a credit against the severance tax for property taxes paid by oil and gas producers and interest owners; reducing the level of production that qualifies wells for an exemption from the tax; exempting revenues from the tax related investment income from state and local government spending limits; and requiring the tax revenues to be credited at follows: (A) 22% to the severance tax trust fund, (B) 22% to the local government severance tax fund, and (C) 56% to a new severance tax stabilization trust fund, of which 60% is used to fund scholarships for Colorado residents attending state collages and universities, 15% to fund the preservation of the native wildlife habitat, 10% to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, 10% to fund transportation projects in counties and municipal impacted by the severance of oil and gas, and 5% to fund drinking water and wastewater treatment grants?

Darth B’strad

Amendment 59
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the manner in which the state funds Public education from preschool through the twelfth grade, and, in connection therewith, for the 2010-11 state fiscal year and each state fiscal year thereafter, requiring that any revenue that the state would otherwise be required to refund to pursuant to the constitutional limit on state fiscal year spending be transfered instead to the state education fund; eliminating the requirement that, for the 2011-12 state fiscal year and each state fiscal year thereafter, the statewide base per pupil funding for public education from preschool through the twelfth grade and the total state funding for all categorical programs increase annually by at least the rate of inflation; creating a savings account in the state education fund; requiring that a portion of the state education fund be credited to the savings account in certain circumstances; requiring either a two-thirds majority vote of each house of the general assembly or, in any state fiscal year in which Colorado personal income grows less than six percent between the two previous calendar years, a simple majority vote of the general assembly to use the moneys in the savings account; establishing the purposes for which moneys in the savings account may be spent; establishing a maximum amount that may be spent; establishing a maximum amount that may be in the savings account in any state fiscal year; and allowing the general assembly to transfer moneys from the general fund to the state education fund, so long as certain obligations for transportation funding are met?

Darth B’Strad

Referendum L
An amendment to section 4 of article V of the state constitution of the state of Colorado, concerning the ability of an elector of the state of Colorado who as attained the age of twenty-one years to serve as a member of the Colorado general assembly.

Distinguished Bean
Darth B’Strad

Referendum M
Shall section 7 of article XVIII of the state constitution concerning outdated, obsolete provisions regarding land value increase be repealed?

Darth B’Strad

Referendum N
Shall there be a repeal of section 5 of article XVIII and article XXII of the state constitution, concerning the elimination of outdated obsolete provisions of the state constitution?

Darth B’Strad

Referendum O
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning ballot initiatives, and, in connection therewith, increasing the number of signatures required for a proposed initiative to amend the state constitution; reducing the number of signatures required for a proposed initiative; requiring a minimum number of signatures for a proposed initiative to amend the state constitution to be gathered from residents of each congressional district in the state; increasing the time allowed to gather signatures for a proposed statutory initiative; modifying the review of initiative petitions; establishing a filing deadline for proposed initiative to amend the state constitution; and requiring a two-thirds vote of all members elected to each house of the general assembly to amend, repeal, or supersede any law enacted by an initiative for a period of five years after the law becomes effective?

Darth B’Strad