QUESTIONS 200, 201: Stormwater fees, payments to city likely to remain

With 99.3% of precincts reporting,

on Question 200:

42,385 (39.93%) voted FOR

63,753 (60.07%) voted AGAINST

on Question 201:

48,071 (45.35%) voted FOR

57,923 (54.65%) voted AGAINST

Colorado Springs voters soundly rejected anti-tax crusader Doug Bruce's bid to essentially eliminate the city's stormwater fee and phase out payments to the city by other enterprises, measures officials said would have cost the city more than $200 million over 10 years.

Question 200, which likely would have eliminated the city's Stormwater Enterprise, was defeated 60 percent to 40 percent. Question 201, which would phase out over 10 years payments from city enterprises to the general fund, lost 55 percent to 45 percent.

Bruce, who authored the state Taxpayer's Bill or Rights, launched the effort after the City Council formed the Stormwater Enterprise and began billing property owners. Bruce claimed the fee constituted an illegal tax because it was mandatory and was implemented without letting residents vote on it.

The city based its actions on Colorado Supreme Court rulings in similar cases that stormwater fees are not taxes and don't require voter approval.

Bruce was not immediately available for comment.

Kevin Walker, a developer who headed the committee opposing the measures, said he was pleased with the results, which he called "an appropriate response from voters because it maintains the investments we have made in the past and will help us to be a good neighbor to folks to the south of us," referring to the key role the Stormwater Enterprise plays in curbing wastewater spills in Fountain Creek.

Walker and city officials were worried that approval of Question 200 would have set back efforts to gain approval from Pueblo officials for the Southern Delivery System, a major water pipeline project planned by Colorado Springs Utilities.

The defeat continues a series of defeats for Bruce since voters approved TABOR in 1992. Voters have overwhelmingly rejected several state amendments and local ballot questions authored by Bruce, including two measures in 2006 that would have cut city taxes and limited its debt.

He also was ousted from the state Legislature in the GOP primary in August after a tumultuous four months as an appointed mid-term replacement.

Bob Loevy, a Colorado College political science professor, said Bruce scored some victories in Tuesday's election with the apparent rejection of both Amendment 59, which would have gutted TABOR, and Referendum O, which would have made amendments to the state constitution more difficult to get on the ballot. Bruce opposed both measures.

"We are in a period where the bloom is off the Bruce rose. Voters are looking more carefully at what he is proposing and in this case, decided not to go along," Loevy said. "That doesn't mean he won't come back later with proposals that might pass. It took several tries to get TABOR approved."

If Question 200 had passed, the city would have lost an expected $15.9 million that the enterprise now takes in and returned to spending $2.3 million a year on a huge backlog of drainage projects. If Question 201 had passed, the city would have lost $3.5 million in payments from its enterprises this year and an estimated $40.5 million by 2018. An analysis by City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft in June determined that without the payments city services would have been reduced 17 percent.

Contact the writer: 636-0234 or wayneh@gazette.com