Boulder County Child Care Property Tax of 2.579 Mills

Ballot Issue 1A would add a Boulder County property tax of 2.579 mills for child care and preschool. The question states the increase as $30,000,000 in tax collection year 2027, "and by such additional amounts raised annually thereafter." At a fixed rate, the amount raised each year depends on the assessed value of property in the county.

Under the commissioners' Resolution No. 2026-048, which the question names for its details, the tax would apply in the county's incorporated and unincorporated areas from January 1, 2027, "continuing in perpetuity, unless and until repealed or otherwise revised by a vote of the citizens of Boulder County."

The question also lets the county keep and spend the revenue and its investment earnings as a voter-approved revenue change under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR, Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution) and as an exception to the limitations in section 29-1-301 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The resolution extends that exception to all of the levy's revenue "regardless of amount," and to "any other law that might otherwise apply."

The ballot puts the levy at approximately $115 a year on a $725,000 home "based on current rates of assessment." The resolution states it as $16.00 for each $100,000 of a home's value as the Boulder County Assessor sets it.

Resolution 2026-048 puts the proceeds in a dedicated fund, to be spent "by the County and with a contracted and qualified community partner through a competitive RFP process" in three priority areas.

The first is affordability: more families served through existing subsidy programs, and new ones that "prioritize those who need support the most." The second is capacity: providers could apply for money for capital improvements, "facility construction or acquisition," operating costs and added staff to create licensed infant and toddler slots. The third is the workforce: licensed providers and license-exempt family, friend and neighbor providers could apply for money for pay, retention and credentials. The county and its selected partner would establish shared services to lower providers' costs for benefits, insurance and back-office work.

Administration is capped at 10% of annual revenue. Boulder County would serve as the fiscal and legal authority for the money. The resolution states the board's intent that the tax add to existing child care funding and not replace it.

The measure was crafted by Brighter Start Boulder County, a coalition of 19 early childhood advocates, the Daily Camera reported on July 24. The plan the paper described designates $12 million to restore the county's Child Care Assistance Program, $10.5 million for tuition help for families who do not qualify for that program, about $5 million in competitive grants to add infant and toddler spots, and $2.5 million for a workforce fund. According to the coalition, as Boulder Reporting Lab reported on September 13, the new tuition assistance would reach families earning up to $150,000 a year. Those amounts and limits are the coalition's; the resolution sets the three priority areas.

The Child Care Assistance Program pays providers for part or all of tuition for low-income families and is largely federally funded, and new enrollment has been frozen for about two years, Boulder Reporting Lab reported. In July the Daily Camera reported more than 900 families on the wait list and no added state or federal money planned to reopen it. Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said she expected much of the tax revenue to go toward closing the program's funding gap, Boulder Reporting Lab reported.

The resolution says child care costs families more than $23,000 a year per child, and that the county is short approximately 1,723 licensed infant slots and 1,357 licensed toddler slots against estimated need. It says a dedicated local source would give "protection from increasingly uncertain federal and state funding." It also says the 2.579-mill rate is what "proponents of this mill levy have requested" to meet the funding needs of their proposal. The board found that rate "sufficient and necessary to cover the expected costs of the County's purposes."

The commissioners referred the tax 3 to 0 after a public hearing on July 23, 2026. At the hearing, Commissioner Marta Loachamin voted yes but said she wanted to limit the tax to 15 years and reduce it to 2 mills, citing affordability for residents already struggling with the area's costs, the Daily Camera reported. "If we try to reduce it down, I think we shortchange the success of the program," Stolzmann said.