Telluride School District Property Tax Override

Issue 5A sizes Telluride School District R-1's new override by a share of the district's total program instead of a mill rate. For collection year 2027 it raises the district's taxes by $2,674,059. In each later year, the added tax is the amount that, combined with the taxes district voters approved before, equals 50% of the district's total program, the funding total the state's school finance law sets for the district. The question defines total program as the term in state law "or any similar term in a successor provision," so the tie carries into a rewritten formula. The money goes to the general fund for keeping teachers and staff, sustaining programs and supporting student achievement. The override runs with no end date. Telluride School District R-1 voters in San Miguel and Dolores counties see Issue 5A on their ballots.

The district's August 2026 finance forecast says its override now equals 30% of total program, and Issue 5A raises it to 50%. The district levies 7.281 mills for total program and 2.450 mills for its current override. It estimates the first year's increase at 1.63 mills on 2025 assessed values, or $115.07 a year for each $1 million of residential property value and $408.06 for each $1 million of commercial value. The district expects the amount collected in 2029 and later years to decrease as total program declines.

The district ties the request to HB25-1320, the state's new school finance act. Its forecast says the law lowers Telluride's cost-of-living factor from 159.6% to a new maximum of 123.0%, shortens the multiyear enrollment average and adds a locale factor that in effect removes the district's rural designation. It projects that the cost-of-living and locale changes reduce revenue by $2.9 million to $3.3 million by the 2032-33 school year. It describes the 50% override as the state's way to let the district partially offset the revenue lost to the lower cost-of-living factor.

The forecast counts 752 students in 2025-26, down from a peak of 910 in 2018-19, and projects 620 by 2032-33.

At the end of its forecast period, the district projects a $1 million deficit with the 50% override and a $3.1 million deficit without it. Those figures leave out two statewide measures on the same ballot, Proposition NN and Amendment 87, which the forecast says could bring the district $262,000 and $649,000 outside the school finance formula if they pass. The forecast assumes $2.7 million in cost reductions over seven years. With expenses rising 2.8% a year, it counts reductions equal to 27 of the district's 143 full-time staff positions if Issue 5A passes, and 55 if it fails.