North Range Metropolitan District No. 3

North Range Metro District No. 3 Limit on Multi-Year Levy Pledges

Voter approval requirementRepeal of a 2014 levy authority for multi-year agreements

Repeals North Range Metro District No. 3's 2014 authority to fund multi-year agreements with property tax levies of up to $280 million a year; new ones would need voter approval.

North Range Metropolitan District No. 3

Kim's Recommendation

YES

Vote Yes on North Range Metropolitan District No. 3 Ballot Issue 6B

Ballot Issue 6B concerns a power to commit the district's property tax to other parties for years at a time. Under Ballot Issue 5D, the board can sign multi-year contracts and intergovernmental agreements and back them with levies of up to $280 million a year, and the board may use that power without asking voters again. A pledge of that kind binds the budgets of boards not yet elected and the property tax bills that fund them. The district is already party to one such pledge: its 2016 agreement with Reunion, under which it agreed to set its operations levy as Reunion directs, has been in court since 2022, and the districts' presentation lists a jury trial for March 2027.

After 6B, a new multi-year agreement that commits the district's levy to another government or party, beyond what the board appropriates each year, needs specific voter authorization before the board signs it. I support that check on the board's power to pledge the district's levy to others.

I recommend a yes vote on North Range Metropolitan District No. 3 Ballot Issue 6B.

Kim Monson

Host, The Kim Monson Show · President, Colorado Union of Taxpayers · Colorado Voter's Guide 2026

Certified ballot question

PROHIBIT FUNDING OF MULTIPLE FISCAL YEAR NON-DEBT AGREEMENTS OUTSIDE OF VOTER ESTABLISHED OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE TAX LIMITATION

SHALL BALLOT ISSUE 5D, UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED BY SEVEN VOTERS AT A SPECIAL ELECTION HELD ON NOVEMBER 04, 2014, BE FOREVER REPEALED AND RESCINDED EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, WHICH BALLOT ISSUE CURRENTLY AUTHORIZES NORTH RANGE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 3 TO ENTER INTO ONE OR MORE MULTIPLE FISCAL YEAR FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS EVIDENCED BY CONTRACTS, AGREEMENTS OR INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENTS AND TO FUND SUCH AGREEMENTS FROM AD VALOREM TAX LEVIES OF UP TO $280,000,000 ANNUALLY; SUCH REPEAL AND RESCISSION SHALL NOT IMPAIR OR ADVERSELY IMPACT PERFORMANCE UNDER ANY EXISTING VALID AND LAWFUL CONTRACTS, AGREEMENTS OR INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENTS, BUT SHALL PREVENT ENTERING INTO ANY FUTURE MULTIPLE FISCAL YEAR FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS NOT SUBJECT TO ANNUAL APPROPRIATION OR TO ANY FUNDING LEVIES WITHOUT SPECIFIC VOTER AUTHORIZATION?

A yes vote means

Repeals the 2014 authority while protecting performance under existing valid and lawful contracts, agreements and intergovernmental agreements. New multi-year financial obligations not subject to annual appropriation, or funding levies under this authority, would need specific voter authorization.

A no vote means

The 2014 authority would remain.

Levies Pledged Through Agreements01

Ballot Issue 6B permanently repeals Ballot Issue 5D, effective immediately. Issue 5D authorizes North Range Metropolitan District No. 3 take on multiple-fiscal-year financial obligations through contracts, agreements or intergovernmental agreements and fund them from property tax levies of up to $280,000,000 a year. Seven voters approved it unanimously in a special election on November 4, 2014.

6B is aimed at funding for multi-year agreements other than debt that falls outside the cap voters placed on the operations and maintenance tax. It is one of four district questions on this ballot: 6A ends every unused debt authorization from past elections, 6C repeals 2014 Issue 5B's authority to levy up to $20,000,000 a year for public-improvement capital costs, and 6D cuts the operations and maintenance ceiling to $9,000,000 a year from $20,000,000. In the fiscal table printed under 6B in Adams County's TABOR notice, the authority carries $280,000,000 of principal and $2,296,000,000 of total repayment cost.

Valid Existing Contracts Are Protected02

Repealing 5D leaves performance under existing contracts, agreements and intergovernmental agreements unimpaired, so long as they are valid and lawful. After the repeal, the district needs specific voter authorization to enter a new multiple-fiscal-year obligation not subject to annual appropriation, or to levy a tax to fund one. The requirement reaches commitments that bind later budgets; an agreement the board funds by appropriation one year at a time needs no such vote.

The Reunion Agreement in Court03

The parties to a Mill Levy Equalization and Pledge Agreement, executed in 2016 and amended in 2017, are Reunion Metropolitan District and North Range Metropolitan Districts 1 through 4, according to slides that North Range Districts 1, 2 and 3 showed at a town hall on September 21, 2026. Under it, the North Range districts agreed to set their operations levy as Reunion directs and to fund repayment of debt that Reunion issues. Reunion sued Districts 1 and 2 for breach in December 2022, and they counterclaimed that the agreement is invalid. District 3 told the court in July 2023 that it intended to comply with the existing agreements; the court added it to the case that November, and in January 2026 the judge declined to dismiss Reunion's breach claims against it. The districts' presentation lists a two-week jury trial in Adams County District Court for March 2027. 6B's protection reaches only valid and lawful agreements, and that counterclaim puts this one's validity in question.

Sources04

Official documents