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Jefferson County voters again asked to forever give up overcollected tax refunds

LAKEWOOD —Jefferson County voters will be asked for a third time in four election cycles to pass a “de-TABOR” measure, allowing the county to permanently keep and spend over-collected tax revenue that would otherwise be refunded back to county residents under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

This time, however, they have spent more than a quarter-million dollars of taxpayer money on a marketing firm owned by the husband of Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen to convince voters to say yes.

TABOR is a constitutional amendment that, among other things, limits the growth of local government spending to a reasonable annual rate based on inflation and local economic growth. Excess revenue must be returned to taxpayers unless voters give permission to exceed those limits.

According to a news release, the Democrat-controlled Jefferson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously earlier this month to refer a question to the November general election ballot asking to “to collect, retain, and spend the full revenues from authorized revenue sources beginning in Fiscal Year 2024.”

“It’s important to us that we hear from the community on the level of service that they expect from the county,” County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper said, despite the fact the community has told the commissioners no to attempts at overriding TABOR revenue limits twice now in the past two elections.

Commissioner Andy Kerr said the decision was made “in the spirit of TABOR,” despite the actual language of the TABOR amendment saying “time-outs” from revenue limits are only allowed to last four years without asking voters again.

The county is telling voters that the funds will be used for transportation, infrastructure and public safety. However, all three areas are vaugue enough that the money could be spent on anything the county could reasonably tie back to those categories.  Commissioners have also hired a private consulting firm run by a longtime progressive political activist to help sell the measure to voters this time around.

The Ian Silverii show

As previously reported by Complete Colorado, On Nov. 2, 2023, Jeffco’s acting purchasing operations manager Vera Braeckman-Kennedy signed a contract for $340,000 with The Bighorn Company, a Lakewood-based campaign, public policy, and government relations consulting firm co-led by Ian Silverii, the former executive director of Progress Now Colorado, which touts itself as the state’s “largest and most effective multi-issue progressive organization.”  Silverii has been married to US Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat whose congressional district includes Jefferson County, since 2017.

The bulk of the contract includes $180,000 in “fees” for Silverii’s work as well as $110,000 for polling data. The contract outlines recruiting a campaign team, setting up the fundraising, and providing the strategic communications.

Bighorn’s Website boasts that it has never lost a ballot initiative. However, success may not be the only thing that made Silverii attractive to Jefferson County. The connections and history between Silverii, Pettersen, and Jefferson County’s leadership run deep.

Silverii and Pettersen worked together for years pushing progressive policy, while Pettersen represented the Jefferson County-heavy House District 28 in the Colorado legislature from 2013-19 and then Colorado Senate District 22 from 2019-23.

During Pettersen’s time in the legislature, she served alongside two of Jefferson County’s three commissioners who ultimately signed off on the contract: Andy Kerr, who represented Senate District 22 from 2013-19, and Tracy Kraft-Tharp, who represented House District 29 from 2013-2021. Pettersen’s relationship with the third commissioner, Lesley Dahlkemper, dates to Dahlkemper’s time on the Jefferson County school board. In addition to donating to each other’s political campaigns over the years, the two women worked closely on several bills impacting education as well as the successful recall against three Jeffco school board members in 2015.

Complete Colorado will continue to follow the initiative, as well as Bighorn’s involvement in the effort.

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