FACE THE STATE
Many of Colorado’s over 3,200 local governments, from cities to water districts, will place a host of issues before voters this November. Residents of the state’s nearly 2,000 special districts face an especially difficult time learning will appear on their local ballot, and they may not even be aware these governments exist. Complicating matters, the state office overseeing local government issues is unaware of elections in advance, and officials only learn of elections after the polls have closed and votes are tallied.
Special districts are local governments that provide services such as fire protection, sanitation, road repairs and water services. Like their more traditional municipal counterparts, many special districts have the authority to issue debt and to levy and collect property taxes for repayment.
According to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, there are currently 3,211 active local governments in the state. Of them, 1,849 are active special districts, 1,199 of which are metropolitan districts. Metropolitan districts are special districts with a broad mandate for providing enough services to establish a “community,” oftentimes formed to support a new subdivision. Most of these entities, large and small, have the ability to raise and collect taxes, sell bonds and issue debt.
Special districts hold annual or biannual elections, sometimes timed to coincide with general elections but they can follow other schedules as well. Voters are often uninformed about when the elections are held, where to vote, or even what issues may be presented on the ballot. A poll of officials at the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, Department of Local Affairs, and Colorado Special District Association reveals no statewide agency knows many elections might be held this year.
“It would be really helpful for all of us to try and track them,” said Special District Association spokesperson Annie Skinner. “There is not really a way to figure out who is having the elections and when. It is very scattered in the way that [special districts hold elections].”
Research conducted by the free-market Independence Institute in 2007 shows the average rate of growth for local governments and special districts in Colorado is 6.9%. At that rate and adjusting for population growth, the think tank says Colorado would have one government per person by 2161.
While Colorado has a long way to go before 5 million governments pop up, critics say the rate of growth shows special districts are too easy to create and lack transparency. “[Developers] become a government and have the ability to float municipal bonds paid back by the taxes they collect from future residents,” said Independence Institute researcher Justin Longo. “The responsibility to pay back the bonds doesn’t lay with the developer, it lies with the future residents of the community they are building.”
This past legislative session, lawmakers sought to increase special district transparency by passing Senate Bill 87, sponsored by state Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora. The bill strengthens requirements that special districts post public notices in newspapers and official buildings, and requires disclosure of special district taxes to potential home buyers. The bill was recently signed by Gov. Bill Ritter.
“SB 87 is primarily designed to give notice to property owners of every special district election that impacts them,” said Carroll. “It also gives notice to the homeowners upon buying that they are in special districts and how to find out more information, so new home buyers will at least get a clue that they can find out what their tax liabilities will be.”
State law and the Colorado Constitution regulate to some extent how districts must notify voters of an upcoming election. The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires notices be mailed to voters on any issue that raises taxes or incurs public debt. But leadership elections, which do not require a TABOR notice, are often held in the spring when turnout can be dismally low.
Local officials, generally the Clerk and Recorder in each of Colorado’s 64 counties, coordinate elections within their jurisdiction. State law does not require reporting of elections to the state in advance; results are only sent to officials at DOLA after the fact. According to DOLA, 196 special districts held elections in November of 2006 and 115 in November of 2008.
“Even a smart, intelligent, dedicated person who wants to participate in democracy in not going to have a good time figuring this out,” said Carroll.

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters