A permanent 0.333% sales and use tax and up to $580 million in borrowing for Colorado Connector passenger rail

The registered electors of 31 Front Range towns and the Sterling Ranch metropolitan districts will decide Ballot Issue 7A, a 0.333% sales and use tax with no end date to build, operate and maintain the Colorado Connector, the passenger train the Front Range Passenger Rail District calls CoCo, between Fort Collins and Pueblo.

The question describes the rate as "EQUAL TO ONE THIRD OF A PENNY ON A $1 PURCHASE". It exempts purchases that Colorado law exempts, "INCLUDING THOSE FOR GASOLINE, FOOD, RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY AND GAS, PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES." It states the tax increase as $295,000,000 a year "AND BY WHATEVER AMOUNTS ARE RAISED ANNUALLY THEREAFTER."

If approved, the question will authorize $580,000,000 in district debt with a repayment cost of $785,000,000. The district's election notice puts the maximum annual repayment cost at $35,000,000 and reports no bonded debt outstanding today. The district could keep all of the tax revenue, public and private contributions, and investment income on the revenue and on borrowed money as a voter-approved revenue change under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). An independent auditor and a rotating group of citizen taxpayers who live in the district would review the dedicated revenue each year.

The 2021 law that created the district, Senate Bill 21-238, lets it levy a sales and use tax "AT A MAXIMUM RATE OF EIGHT-TENTHS OF ONE PERCENT" once its voters approve. At 0.333%, 7A asks voters to approve part of that authority. The same law says no action "TO ESTABLISH OR INCREASE ANY TAX" takes effect until the district's registered electors vote on it, so any higher rate would need another vote.

Until this year the law drew the district by county areas along Interstate 25 from Wyoming to New Mexico. Senate Bill 26-172, approved May 26, 2026, repealed that description. The district now includes the whole of 31 named municipalities: Arvada, Boulder, Bow Mar, Broomfield, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Colorado Springs, Columbine Valley, Denver, Edgewater, Englewood, Federal Heights, Fort Collins, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Lafayette, Lakeside, Lakewood, Littleton, Longmont, Louisville, Loveland, Manitou Springs, Mountain View, Pueblo, Sheridan, Starkville, Superior, Trinidad, Westminster and Wheat Ridge. It also takes in Sterling Ranch Colorado Metropolitan District numbers one through seven, and any metropolitan district added to the Sterling Ranch development, in unincorporated Douglas County. Another municipality may join if its governing body approves and, where TABOR requires, its voters approve. A metropolitan district outside any municipality may join if the board names it by resolution and the metropolitan district's governing body agrees.

The state revenue department's rate table places the named towns it lists in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Las Animas, Pueblo and Weld counties. The district's law, as the 2026 law amends it, has the Secretary of State certify the district's ballot content to the clerk and recorder of every county "wholly or partially included" in the district. Only the district's registered electors decide it: in Larimer County, voters in Fort Collins and Loveland; in Douglas County, Sterling Ranch and the part of Littleton in that county.

The Colorado Sun reported on April 22 that the bill would trim out "more conservative parts of the state," among them Castle Rock, Lone Tree, Monument, Greeley and most unincorporated areas. Its sponsor, Sen. Nick Hinrichsen of Pueblo, said it took in cities with at least 20% of their population within five miles of a planned station. District general manager Sal Pace granted that the new district, with its more Democratic-leaning electorate, would likely improve the tax's chances, but said that "was not the driving criteria here" and that the lines followed the train's route and the county clerks' advice.

The 2026 law also lets the board create subdistricts, each of which could put a tax to its voters. The Sun reported subdistricts could seek larger increases for more service, better stations or housing near stops; Pace said, "We don't anticipate to utilize this in 2026."

The 2021 law applies the district tax "UPON EVERY TRANSACTION OR OTHER INCIDENT WITH RESPECT TO WHICH A SALES OR USE TAX IS LEVIED BY THE STATE."

The state's January 2026 rate table (DR 1002) tells readers to add every applicable tax to find a place's total rate. Denver's rows are the state's 2.9%, the city and county's 5.15%, the Regional Transportation District's 1% and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District's 0.1%, for 9.15% today. Fort Collins' rows are the state's 2.9%, Larimer County's 1.05% and the city's 4.35%, for 8.30% today. The 7A tax adds to each place's total. The same Larimer County ballot carries county question 1A, which proposes a 0.3% countywide sales and use tax. The table also lists a 2.25% Fort Collins tax on food for home consumption, which the state and Larimer County exempt. Both 7A and 1A exempt that food, so groceries there would still carry the city's 2.25% and neither new tax.

Under the 2021 law, the governor appoints six voting directors and the Senate confirms them. Metropolitan and rural transportation planning organizations appoint ten more, also subject to Senate confirmation: four from the Denver Regional Council of Governments, two each from the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments and the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, and one each from the Pueblo Area and South Central councils of governments. A city or city and county holding 55% or more of the Denver, Pikes Peak or North Front Range organization's population names one of that organization's seats. The executive director of the state transportation department appoints one. The Senate may remove a confirmed director for cause by a two-thirds vote.

Before referring a tax, the law requires the district to publish a service development plan, an operating plan and a detailed financing plan, and the board must approve the question by two-thirds of all voting directors. The board referred 7A on August 28, 2026, by a vote of 14 to 1 at a special meeting at the Transportation Technology Center near Pueblo. Director Cory Applegate of the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments cast the one no vote, Boulder Weekly reported.

The district's election notice shows its spending growing from $83,136 in 2022 to $13,424,784 in 2025, with $6,544,584 estimated for 2026. The draft financing plan has tax collections beginning in July 2027. The notice estimates $144,000,000 for the partial year 2027 and $295,000,000 in 2028, the first full year of the tax, against an estimated $100,000 in that year without it.

The district's August 2026 draft financing plan sets out five phases. The plan targets 2029 for starter service, three daily round trips between Fort Collins and Denver, and assumes the district's partners will pay for it. Two state transportation enterprises plan to use rental car fees and oil and gas fees, and approximately $156 million of the work lies in RTD's service area and "may be funded" by an RTD contribution. "If there is a 'No' vote, the plan is still to move ahead with the first phase," board chair John Putnam told the Denver Herald Dispatch.

The tax and borrowing would pay for full service, targeted for mid-2032: four daily round trips north of Denver and two between Denver and Pueblo, with new stations at Littleton, Sterling Ranch, North Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. The plan targets six round trips north of Denver and four between Denver and Pueblo by 2037, and ten and eight by mid-2045, the earliest dates it projects the tax can fund those phases on a pay-as-you-go basis. The dates are targets, and the plan says host railroads BNSF Railway and Union Pacific, construction costs, borrowing conditions and tax revenue could change them.

In year-of-expenditure dollars, the plan estimates capital costs of $332 million for Phase 1, $1.772 billion for Phase 2, $611 million for Phase 3, $99 million for Phase 4 and $2.027 billion for Phase 5. Starting in 2029 it would set aside $51.3 million a year for 25 years for a Local Return program, paid by population to local governments with a station and to Trinidad. The Pueblo Chieftain reported Pueblo's share at up to $82.5 million over 25 years. The plan puts Phase 1 operating costs at approximately $30 million a year, rising to $40 million to $51 million a year from 2033 through 2037 after Phase 2.

Those involved with the project name FasTracks as a reason for the district's extra planning and outreach, Newsline reported. RTD's program, approved by voters in 2004, still has its B Line to Boulder slated for 2042, largely because of the cost of leasing BNSF track. BNSF entered a 25-year access agreement with the district to run the train between Denver and Fort Collins, the Denver Herald Dispatch reported on September 9.

The district marks its financing plan "working draft," "subject to change" and "reliance restricted." It assumes borrowing only for Phase 2, through 30-year bonds secured by the tax, at an assumed 5.75% interest rate. The draft assumes $398 million in debt proceeds issued in 2030 and $29 million in annual debt service for 30 years. Those payments would total $870 million, $85 million above the ballot’s $785 million repayment limit. The draft’s borrowing or repayment assumptions would have to change to fit that limit. The plan says "the ballot issue as currently contemplated" limits total debt to $580 million, with repayment capped at $785 million, and that each 50-basis-point drop in rates would raise its borrowing capacity by approximately $5 million "within the voter approved limit."

The plan's revenue projection rests on the state's 2025 taxable sales base and long-term growth of 2.5% to 3.0% a year. The district expects to update the plan each year if the measure passes and says it "can then adjust its financing, construction, and operation approach in real time."

Coloradans for CoCo registered with the Secretary of State as an issue committee on August 28, 2026. Its report filed September 21 showed $339,300 in monetary contributions, $1,225.71 in spending and $338,074.29 on hand. The campaign told Colorado Public Radio that the train is "the practical way to get more cars off the road and reduce air pollution." The Boulder Chamber supports 7A, citing workforce access and the Local Return money. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce opposes it, saying the proposal "lacks clear ridership projections, ticket prices, and insufficient financial and operational certainty" and that "this tax is not necessary to complete the Denver to Fort Collins starter service."

The written comments against 7A in the state ballot information booklet, the Blue Book, call it regressive, say it would be added to sales taxes that "already total 8% to 9% in some communities," and say voters are asked to approve it "before final costs, fares, schedules, passenger ridership levels, agreements with the railroads, and full-corridor delivery dates are known." The comments for it cite I-25 congestion and a "$1.5 billion local return program," and add, "Annual audits and taxpayer oversight add accountability measures to help ensure funds are used as intended." At the board's August 28 meeting, former RTD director Natalie Menten opposed the tax, saying, "I'm opposed to something I'll be paying for on a daily basis, but rarely, if ever, will use."