Opinion ID: 1163374
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ballot Question A stated:

Text: Shall Aurora's taxes be increased by $5,000,000 annually, commencing in 1994, for more police protection and more detention space, and by whatever additional amounts are raised annually thereafter, from a .25% Sales and Use Tax, to be spent as a voter-approved revenue change and an exception to the limits which would otherwise apply, to permit: 1) increased staffing of the Aurora Police Department, including civilian support staff and necessary facilities and equipment to provide a minimum of two uniformed police officers per 1000 person population in 1995 and thereafter; and 2) operation and maintenance of the municipal detention facility, without limiting or affecting the collection or spending of other revenues? (emphasis added). Acosta contends that Ballot Question A violated Amendment 1 by seeking approval of an open-ended revenue increase. In particular, Acosta argues that the phrase in section 7(d), voter-approved revenue changes are dollar amounts,  implies that voter approval cannot be valid unless the ballot question states the proposed revenue increase in dollars, rather than in terms of the source of revenue. Colo. Const. art X, § 20(7)(d) (emphasis added). [2] Question A is thus invalid, according to Acosta, because it proposed retention of any excess revenue that might result from collection of the new sales and use tax without providing to voters the specific dollar amount of the excess revenue it sought to retain. We do not agree. Amendment 1 requires voter approval for tax increases and limits spending increases unless approved by the electorate. [3] Revenue collected, kept, or spent illegally must be refunded with interest. Id. § 20(1). We interpret Amendment 1 to require voters to approve the collection, retention or expenditure of revenue increases in three situations. The first is where a district proposes any of the forms of revenue increases detailed in section 4(a), such as new taxes, increased tax rates or tax policy changes that result in increased tax revenues. Id. § 20(4)(a). The second is where revenues actually collected exceed the dollar amounts of the spending limits imposed in section 7(b). In this situation, voters may approve a revenue change as an offset to the excess revenues. Id. § 20(7)(d). The third circumstance in which voters must approve a revenue change is where the revenues generated by a specific tax increase exceed the estimated maximum dollar amount included in the election notice and ballot title under which voters approved the tax increase. In this situation, the district must refund the excess revenues and decrease the tax rate in proportion to the excess revenues collected, except by later voter approval. Id. § 20(3)(c). The case now before us comes within the third category. In Question A, the City attempted to obtain voter approval to retain any excess future revenues which may be collected from the proposed .25% increase in the City's sales and use tax. No provision of Amendment 1 explicitly requires proposed revenue changes in this third category to be presented for voter approval as a dollar amount. Section 3 of Amendment 1 is entitled Election provisions and addresses the requirements for form and content of ballot titles and election notices. This section requires that proposed revenue changes be presented in dollar amounts only when voters are asked to approve a district tax increase. Id. § 20(3)(b)(iii). In that situation, the estimated maximum dollar amount of the increase must be provided in the ballot title and notice. Id. § 20(3)(b)(iii), (c). Amendment 1 contains no other provision indicating the form in which proposed revenue changes are to be presented to the voters for approval. Nor is there any provision prohibiting a taxing district from presenting a revenue change to the voters by reference to the tax rate. The challenged revenue change in Ballot Question A was not a district tax increase subject to subsection 3(b)(iii) or (c) and thus, no provision of Amendment 1 expressly required the City to present the proposed increase as a dollar amount. Since Amendment 1 imposes no express requirement that the ballot title present this type of revenue change as a dollar amount, we next consider Acosta's contention that such a requirement is implicit in the phrase voter-approved revenue changes are dollar amounts. Id. § 20(7)(d). Section 7 is entitled Spending limits and subsection 7(d), where this language appears, is primarily devoted to the method for calculating a district spending base. See supra note 2. As discussed earlier, new taxes are a type of revenue change requiring voter approval. Taxes, e.g., sales and use taxes, often are expressed in terms of tax rates, not dollar amounts. Thus, the language in section 7(d) is necessary because voter-approved revenue changes must be converted to dollars if the spending limit figure is to be adjusted by the amount of the voter-approved change as required by sections 7(b). This provision, therefore, has a specialized purpose and cannot be interpreted as generally applicable to mandate that revenue changes proposed in a ballot issue be stated in dollar amounts. If Amendment 1 had been intended to require that all revenue changes be presented to the voters for approval in terms of dollar amounts, it could have been drafted to state precisely that. In the absence of a provision of Amendment 1 that expressly requires the City to present this type of proposed revenue change as a dollar amount, we hold that Question A complied with the requirements of Amendment 1.