Contributions ramp up in Adams school tax campaigns

Campaign committees supporting tax increases in five Adams County school districts have raised nearly $260,000, according to final pre-election spending reports filed with the Department of State.

Committees in the Adams 12-Five Star, Brighton, Commerce City, Mapleton and Westminster districts grew their combined war chests by about 50 percent since the previous set of reports were filed on Oct. 14.

Those five districts all have bond issues and/or tax override proposals before voters, believed to be the first time all five large districts in the western end of the county have been on the ballot at the same time.

Those districts are among some two-dozen statewide that are proposing a total of about $1.5 billion in bond issues and tax overrides. (See the spreadsheet at the bottom of this story for details on those proposals, and see this Chalkbeat Colorado story for more background.)

A total of nearly $475,000 has been raised statewide by district campaign committees. The largest single amount is the $99,000 raised by Citizens for District 49, which is supporting the bond and override proposed by the Falcon district.

The statewide total doesn’t include the $395,450 raised in Denver by the Preschool Matters committee, which is backing the proposed increase and extension of the sales tax that funds scholarships for the Denver Preschool Program (see story). All the district proposals elsewhere involve property taxes.

The largest amount of money raised in Adams is the $87,697 collected by IAM27J, the committee backing the $148 million bond proposal in the fast-growing Brighton district.

Citizens for Adams 12 Schools has raised $85,220 in that district, while Yes for Mapleton has raised $37,855, Our Schools – Our Community in Westminster has raised $37,189 and the We Believe committee in Commerce City has raised $11,864. The reports covered activity through Oct. 26 and were filed Friday.

The largest contributors to most committees are bond advisors, construction companies and developers.

For example, investment banker Stifel Nicolaus has contributed a total of $27,500 to Citizens for Adams 12, while contractor Adolphson & Peterson has given $15,000.

Shea Homes and Oakwood Homes have each donated $10,000 to IAM27J, which also has received funding from several construction companies.

The Yes for Mapleton committee has received $7,388 from investment bank George K. Baum & Co. (That contribution came in after the latest report so is in addition to the committee’s reported total.) The group also has received $10,500 from the Mapleton Education Foundation.

Falcon’s campaign also is heavily funded by developers and construction companies.

The largest single proposal this year is Boulder’s $576.4 million bond issue. But the Yes on 3A committee has raised a relatively modest $37,778.

Most committees statewide reported substantial jumps in spending from Oct. 14 to Oct. 31 as mail balloting began and the election date neared. Committees had spent a combined total of nearly $400,000 as of the Oct. 31 report.

This story was updated and corrected on Nov. 3 to include information about the Westminster campaign.

What districts are proposing

This spreadsheet includes information gathered by the Colorado School Finance Project as of Oct. 6.