Jeffco Public Schools Operating Tax Increase

Jefferson County School District R-1 asks voters in Ballot Issue 5A for an operating tax that could grow to the ceiling state law sets for school overrides. The increase is $73 million in 2026, for collection in 2027, "AND BY SUCH AMOUNTS IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS THAT WILL PRODUCE, WHEN COMBINED WITH PRIOR MILL LEVY OVERRIDE AMOUNTS, UP TO THE LIMIT ESTABLISHED FOR THE DISTRICT BY SECTION 22-54-108(3)(B)(VI), C.R.S." The district levies property tax in Jefferson and Broomfield counties. The election resolution the board adopted on August 20 describes the question as a tax increase of $73,000,000 for general operating expenses that would also "increase its mill levy override cap to the maximum amount authorized" under that section of state law. The question sets no mill rate, no dollar ceiling for later years and no expiration.

If voters approve, the district will deposit the revenue in its general fund and use it for purposes state law allows for an override. The question gives two examples: raising pay for teachers, education support professionals, support staff and school leaders "CLOSER TO THE MARKET AVERAGE," and career and technical education programs. The question promises that a "BOARD-APPOINTED CITIZENS’ COMMITTEE" will review the spending, with annual public reports posted on a website. Approval treats the tax revenue and any investment earnings on it as a voter-approved revenue change under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) and any other law.

Jefferson County's TABOR notice for the November 3 election puts the district's 2026-2027 spending at $1,107,619,300 before the tax, 13.1% above the audited $979,265,388 of 2022-2023, and gives $73,000,000 as the district's estimate of the largest increase in that first full fiscal year. The district expects the money to arrive from March to August 2027 and calls 2027-28 the first full year it can budget for it.

District staff, including chief financial officer Brenna Copeland, explained the limit to the board on August 4. The presentation said override capacity "is directly tied to the district’s total program," the state formula amount that is "largely a function of enrollment and the per pupil funding formula set by the state," and put the maximum at 28% of total program. It said existing overrides reduce the room left, that rising property values do not increase the cap, and that the maximum "does NOT grow with inflation."

The district's Partnership for Fiscal Sustainability recommended in May that Jeffco collect an additional $75 million a year to reach the maximum. By July and again on August 4, district staff put the figure lower: "Current forecast is that $73M per year will max out Jeffco’s mill levy overrides, given lower enrollment and slight shifts in other school finance variables."

A December 2025 district summary totals Jeffco's four voter-approved general-purpose overrides at $146.3 million. For taxes collected in 2026, the board certified 10.130 mills for voter-approved overrides, expected to raise $153,424,846 in Jefferson County and $2,246,744 in Broomfield County, within a total district levy of 44.349 mills.

The Golden Transcript estimated on September 3 that the $73 million first-year amount works out to about 4.75 mills. That is an estimate: the assessed value when the tax is collected will differ, and later years follow the question's formula rather than a fixed rate. Taxable assessed value is a different base from the market value the district uses for its figures, so the two cannot be compared directly. The new levy would be added to the existing bill.

The district estimates the combined cost of 5A and 5B at $3.50 a month for every $100,000 of a home's market value, or about $273 a year on a $650,000 home. Its website does not show how it calculated that estimate. The Golden Transcript used a $632,958 home and estimated $386 a year from the two new levies before a separate $114 reduction in the existing bond tax. On the paper’s figures, the net school-property-tax increase would be about $272 a year. The bond-tax reduction would occur whether or not 5A and 5B pass.

The August 4 presentation set out a possible budget for the $73 million. About 20%, or $15 million, "could support already awarded compensation increases for district staff," and about 54%, or $39.5 million, "could support future compensation increases." Chalkbeat Colorado reported that the district's plan also puts more than $10 million toward career and technical education and more than $8.5 million to charter schools. State law requires districts to share override revenue with charter schools they authorize. On August 20 the board adopted a plan giving those schools their full proportional share of unrestricted override revenue, using a formula weighted 95% by funded pupil count and 5% by the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

On June 11 the board voted 4-1 to adopt a $1.41 billion budget. By the same vote it approved a pay agreement with the teachers union that gives modest raises now and reopens pay talks only if voters approve the November measure. Board member Denine Echevarria cast the no votes. "My biggest concern with this proposed budget is that we are choosing to spend money that we do not yet have," she said. District staff told the board in July and again on August 4 that the adopted budget "assumes no new mill levies." The district's plan for the adopted budget says that if an override is approved, the new revenue would first replace the reserves the budget draws this year.

The district says Jeffco ranks 9th of 10 nearby districts in midpoint teacher pay and that about 1,500 students are on the waiting list for Warren Tech, the district's career and technical education schools, for 2026-27. Copeland told the board that the raises would be permanent and that the district's accounts cannot tie part of a salary to one funding source. "We can't actually code, from an accounting perspective, a portion of a human being's salary in perpetuity to any specific funding source," she said, according to the Golden Transcript. The district says it will publish its estimate of what each negotiated raise costs and will track other override spending through an extension of its chart of accounts.

Jeffco counted 74,177 students in preschool through 12th grade in October 2025, according to the Colorado Department of Education, down from 86,708 in 2015-16, a drop of 12,531 in ten years. Colorado Politics reported that the district has estimated it lost roughly 1,700 students this year. The district says it has closed 21 schools since 2021, saving $20 million a year, and has sold closed property worth about $17.4 million so far.

For 2026-27 the district cut about $40 million from its budget, and Colorado Politics reported that it eliminated 350 full-time positions between last school year and this one, 90 of them vacant or soon to be vacant. The adopted general fund budget expects $977 million in revenue against $991 million in spending and transfers, drawing $13 million from reserves. District staff projected that with no new levies, spendable general fund reserves would fall to $62 million by June 2028, below the roughly $105 million they called ideal, and that the district would need at least $18 million in cuts for 2027-28, possibly including more school closures. With 5A alone, the district's forecast shows the general fund adding $50 million to reserves in 2026-27 and drawing again in the two years after. The same forecast notes that without new capital funding the district would likely increase its transfer from the general fund to capital, which would change that outlook.

Jeffco voters approved the last override, also numbered 5A, in November 2018, 163,853 votes to 134,687, according to the county's official results. It raised an estimated $33 million in its first year, with an inflation adjustment after that, and the district estimates its 2025-26 collection at $42.4 million, including the charter schools' share. The district planned half of it for staff pay.

The 2018 question, as a district presentation quoted it in August 2026, said the spending would be "reviewed by the citizen’s financial oversight advisory committee for transparency and accountability." A district spokesperson told the Golden Transcript in February 2026 that the committee named on the 2018 ballot was never created. That presentation, made to the board on August 21, says the district's existing Financial Oversight Committee (FOC) discussed override budgets and spending "through about January 2021, when pandemic relief funding, revenue issues at the state, and a 4,000 student drop in enrollment usurped MLO discussions." The district told the paper that "with the pandemic and staff turnover, the district lost track of this intended focus area for the FOC."

The district formed a Mill Levy Override Committee in April 2026. Its page says it "does not decide how MLO funds are spent or invested." In August staff recommended replacing it with a Budget and Mill Levy Override Subcommittee of the District Accountability Committee. A revised committee policy, on the board's September 10 agenda for approval, says the subcommittee shall meet at least three times a year, receive financial reports and give the board advice on spending priorities. The Golden Transcript reported that the question's accountability sentence names no committee, schedule or powers, and that the board did not add the teachers union's request to bar the money from senior administration, a promise the 2018 question made. Instead, the paper reported, the board moved toward a policy capping administrative spending, with Copeland suggesting roughly 6% of the general fund and a goal of adopting it in October.

A December 2025 district summary lists Jeffco's general-purpose override votes: voters defeated overrides in 1998, 2008 and 2016 and approved them in 1999, 2004, 2012 and 2018. In 2016 voters rejected a $33 million override and a $535 million bond, Colorado Politics reported. In 2018 they approved the override and, by 149,236 votes to 147,808, a $567 million construction bond.

The school board voted 5-0 on August 20 to refer 5A and 5B, with Michelle Applegate, Denine Echevarria, Peter Gibbins, Erin Kenworthy and Tina Moeinian voting yes. One Jeffco registered on August 18 as the issue committee campaigning for both measures. Its first campaign finance report is due October 13. In a June district poll, 43% of voters disagreed that Jeffco is fiscally responsible and spends taxpayer money wisely and 41% agreed, the Golden Transcript reported.

The comments in favor printed in the TABOR notice say Jeffco receives about $1,878 less per student than neighboring Front Range districts and that 5A would help it keep teachers and expand career programs. The comments against say enrollment "is declining significantly," that the district should cut spending, and that about 75% of the new money would go to teacher pay "regardless of academic results." Lindsay Datko of the parent group Jeffco Kids First told CBS News Colorado she opposes the measures, citing the district's handling of money from the last tax increase and of student safety.

Ballot Issue 5B asks for a separate $60 million a year under the Debt Free Schools Act. The amount may rise with inflation after the first full fiscal year, and the district would hold the money in a dedicated fund for construction, technology and maintenance. Either measure can pass without the other. A July 24 district presentation said that if 5A passed alone, the district would defer $35 million more in capital maintenance in 2027-28, for a combined deferral of about $79 million that year.