Jeffco Public Schools Capital, Technology and Maintenance Levy

Ballot Issue 5B would raise Jefferson County School District R-1's property taxes starting in 2026, for collection in 2027, "AND ANNUALLY THEREAFTER," under Section 22-54-108.7 of state law, which the question calls the Debt Free Schools Act. After the first full fiscal year the revenue "MAY BE INCREASED ANNUALLY" for inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index. The question sets no expiration, and the revenue would be a voter-approved revenue change under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) and any other law. In the county's TABOR notice, the district estimates the largest increase in the first full fiscal year, 2026-2027, at $60,000,000. The question imposes the levy "AT A RATE SUFFICIENT TO GENERATE REVENUES UP TO SUCH AMOUNT SPECIFIED ABOVE."

The legislature created this kind of levy in 2016 through House Bill 16-1354, as a way to pay for capital construction, technology and maintenance without borrowing. As enacted, the law says that once a majority approves, the district "SHALL LEVY AN ADDITIONAL MILL LEVY EACH YEAR" and deposits the revenue in a separate fund that may be spent only on those needs and may not be pledged to repay any borrowing. The board's August 20 election resolution calls it "ongoing cash funding for capital construction and technology needs of the District."

The question lists its purposes "SUCH AS" plumbing, parking lots, leaking roofs, cooling, heating and ventilation, aging infrastructure and technology, and secure access and monitoring. District presentations on July 24 and August 4 set out an "Illustrative Allocation" of the $60 million: about $7 million for charter schools and about $53 million for the district, under the headings capital maintenance, facility improvements, and building systems and infrastructure. The district says it sets capital priorities through its Strategic Capital Master Plan.

District staff told the board on August 4 that "the district has been deferring between $34M and $49M of necessary capital improvement, while still drawing on capital reserves." Staff projected in July that with no new levies and no change in plans, spendable capital reserves would fall to $9 million by June 2028. The district's priority list includes replacing refrigerant equipment in 96 school buildings, along with cooling systems, sewer and water lines and roofs beyond their service life, and aging security equipment.

The same ballot carries the district's Ballot Issue 5A, an operating tax whose examples include staff pay and career and technical education, and either question can pass without the other. Staff told the board on July 24 that if only 5B passed, the district would still cut at least $18 million from general fund expenses for 2027-28. If 5B failed, staff said, the district would defer another $35 million of capital maintenance in 2027-28, whether or not 5A passed.

Voters approved a $567 million bond, also numbered 5B, in November 2018; Jefferson County's official results show 149,236 votes for it and 147,808 against. The district presented the program's approximate scope and budget to voters in a 2018 Flipbook.

The accounting firm Moss Adams, asked by the district to evaluate the program at its midpoint, reported on November 5, 2021, that bond proceeds through June 30, 2021, were used only for listed purposes, though two of 96 sampled expenditures lacked approval documentation. It also found 14 projects in the district's system that appeared in neither the 2018 nor the 2021 Flipbook, project budgets in its accounting system above the Flipbooks' budgets for the same schools by $109.8 million to $136.5 million, and that the district "has not required the completion of an annual independent financial audit of the Bond Program, which contradicts the requirements set forth in the bond language."

Under the question, a board-appointed citizens' committee would review spending, and the district would post an annual summary online. District staff told the board on August 4 that the fund would be included in the district's independent audit, with a public report within four months of year-end and review by the Capital Asset Advisory Committee, which meets monthly. The committee is advisory to the board, and a district presentation on August 21 quoted the 2018 bond question naming the same committee to monitor that bond's spending. A policy revision proposed for the board's September 10 agenda would add monitoring of "any special purpose mill levy funding for capital projects to ensure alignment with commitments made to voters."

Supporters wrote in the county's TABOR notice that the levy "provides ongoing capital funding without issuing new debt and paying interest to borrow the money," so the district can "address maintenance needs as they arise instead of allowing them to grow into larger and more expensive projects." Opponents cite falling enrollment and the 2018 program's evaluation in the same notice, and say that with 23 schools at 65% capacity utilization or less, voters should know what is planned before approving 5B.