CFRW
COLORADO FEDERATION OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN
2025 COLORADO BALLOT MEASURES - LL and MM
Coloradans vote on two statewide ballot measures in the 2025 election, LL and MM,
and both pertain to the financially troubled Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA Program).
HSMA was established by 2022 Ballot proposition FF to provide free school meals for ALL students, even though there were already programs available to feed needy children.
Prior to the passage of FF, 300,000 of Colorado’s 912,000 students were eligible for free lunches and 71,000 for reduced priced lunches.
To pay for the greatly expanded school meal program, Proposition FF authorized $100,700,000 in new tax revenue by reducing allowed tax deductions on approximately 200,000 Colorado taxpayers with higher incomes.
But the costs of the HSMA program were drastically underestimated – program costs exceeded estimates by $56 million in just the first year of operation.
The State Legislature put Propositions LL and MM on the ballot to bail out the beleaguered program by further raising taxes and negating a provision of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
PLEASE NOTE: Rejection of Propositions LL and MM will not jeopardize free or reduced lunches for eligible students. It would simply restore the program to fiscal responsibility and reaffirm Colorado’s commitment to tax fairness.
Proposition LL – VOTE NO!!
Proposition LL asks voters to allow the state to keep $12.4 million over-collected from taxpayers for the school lunch program rather than refunding it to taxpayers as required by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR).
Furthermore, LL allows the State to continue to bypass TABOR by not returning any overcollections for this program in future years.
VOTE NO because the State must design a program that can live within its budget as opposed to appropriating taxpayers’ refunds.
This is a dangerous precedent that erodes our taxpayer rights.
Proposition MM – VOTE NO!!
Proposition MM further hikes taxes collected from higher earners by slashing allowable state income tax deductions to $1000 for single taxpayers and $2000 for couples, thus raising an additional $95 million per year to pay for the free lunch program.
Proposition MM is a permanent tax increase disguised as a program fix and forces one group to pay all the increased taxes.
The proposition further allows any excess funds not used for school lunches to be diverted to the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- food stamps).
This bill illustrates how government can increase taxes without increasing “tax rates”, demonstrates the Legislature’s desire to move towards a graduated income tax, and shows how one needs to read the fine print to see exactly how tax monies will be used.