SUMMARY - Senator Rollie Heath’s Ballot Proposal
The Heath initiative would restore state income, corporate and sales taxes to their 1999 levels primarily for the benefit of education:
-Corporate income tax and personal income tax rates would increase from 4.63% to 5%.
-The state sales tax rate would increase from 2.9% to 3%.
-The initiative would raise an anticipated $532 million per year.
-The new funds would go toward preventing further cuts to education - preschool through higher education - and, depending on the economy and recovery, could begin restoring funding for some of the devastating cuts of the past three years.
-The new rates would be in effect temporarily for five years, beginning in January 2012.
Context:
-Without ballot action, it is anticipated that P-12 will face a fourth year of deep cuts in the 2012-13 school year and higher education will continue to experience significantly diminished state funding, resulting in higher tuition, reduced financial aid, and possibly even closures of colleges and departments.
-While this initiative will not reverse the cuts schools and colleges have endured over the past four years, it will help to prevent or minimize future cuts.
-This initiative provides the ONLY opportunity available to stop deep cuts in the 2012-13 school year.
-The proposal simply restores tax rates to 1999 levels.
-The proposal’s five-year limit is intended to ensure that the initiative cannot be viewed as a permanent solution to public education funding. This initiative is like a tourniquet that will prevent more irreparable cuts while providing a few years to build consensus on long-term fiscal reform.
Ballot Requirements:
More than 85,000 valid signatures of current registered voters must be submitted by August 1, 2011. That will require between 130,000 – 150,000 total signatures to be collected.
Students at Landmark academy at reunion celebrate first annual latin culture week
Landmark Academy at Reunion , a tuition-free public charter school, recently hosted their First Annual Latin Culture Week, a week focused on educating students on the various aspects of Latin culture, from music and art to sports and celebrities, through unique activities. During the week-long celebration, students were able to step into the lives of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans with Latin culture lessons through piñata making, cultural crafts, songs, traditional foods and more. Students made maracas and learned a traditional Mexican Hat Dance; created Aztec suns working with metal tooling; and studied different countries in Mexico , Central America and South America . Aztec dancers from the Colorado Folk Arts Council also visited with students and educated them on the spiritual and traditional aspects of Aztec culture through dance. “We reside in a community with strong Latin and Hispanic roots,” said Matt Carlton, principal of Landmark Academy at Reunion . “Our community culture is important to us at Landmark. By providing unique ways for our students to learn the various backgrounds of our diverse community they are able to understand and appreciate different cultures.” For more information about Landmark Academy at Reunion , please visit www.landmarkacademy.org.
