Colorado voters weigh sweeping affordable housing measure

As Colorado has emerged as a center of the nationwide housing crisis, voters are considering whether to take high rents and mortgages into their own hands with a sweeping ballot measure that would direct an estimated $300 million a year to affordable housing projects by rewriting the state's tax law.

Proposition 123 is the only statewide affordable housing initiative in the country to make the ballot for the 2022 election, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

If the measure passes, it will direct 0.1% of Colorado's taxable income every year to a number of programs that include helping essential workers buy homes, offering eviction defense and providing funding for local governments to address their housing troubles as they see fit.

Proponents say the measure could build 170,000 homes and rental units over two decades in this rapidly growing state. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Colorado's current shortage at 225,000 homes; supporters say Proposition 123 could help make up that deficit while avoiding a tax hike.

But the measure would also eat into tax refunds guaranteed to residents under a constitutional amendment called the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR — which Coloradans tend to favor. The amendment caps the amount of money the government can spend annually and mandates refunds of any revenue surpassing that cap.

For the 2021 tax year, Coloradan taxpayers each received $750 checks. And under TABOR, any tax increase, be it local or statewide, must be approved by voters.

Many past measures that would have affected state refunds have failed. In 2019, a ballot measure that would have allowed the state to keep excess revenue to spend on education and public transportation was defeated by 53% of voters.

Despite that history, advocates of the housing measure are optimistic, believing that sky-high rents and home values brought on by the pandemic will encourage Coloradans of all political persuasions to vote for it.

Opponents, including the conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado Action, argued there is no guarantee that the state-directed funds would produce the number of housing units promised.