Denver voters will have one less issue to make up their minds about in November.
Supporters pulled a measure from the ballot this week that would have added a 4.5% sales tax to marijuana products to help pay for after-school opportunities for Denver kids including tutoring, mental health support programs and sports.
The My Spark ballot initiative was withdrawn just before the close of business on Thursday, said Alton Dillard with the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office. That’s just ahead of Friday’s deadline to finalize city ballots for the Nov. 8 election.
Advocates pulling the measure at the 11th hour coincides with the announcement of another, smaller after-school program soon to launch with help from the city and other partners. It is not clear if marijuana industry groups are among those helping fund the program for kids but representatives issued statements in support of it.
John Bailey, one of the five members of the petitioners’ committee that backed the measure, said supporters have found another way to launch the My Spark program without asking voters to further tax pot.
“I think the research we’ve done and the interviews that we’ve had suggest that there are lots of people who are interested in this process but they would like us to look at some other things,” Bailey said of the decision to withdraw.
For Bailey, who co-founded the Black Cannabis Equity Initiative, this week’s decision not to go to voters is not the end of the effort, but a pivot in a new direction.
In a statement on the program’s website Friday, My Spark backers said they are partnering with the city to launch a pilot afternoon and summer learning program for 4,000 kids starting in the spring. City officials confirmed a program is in the early stages.
The measure was backed with $270,000 from Gary Community Ventures, a family and youth-focused nonprofit helmed by former state senator and 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Johnston.
Johnston described this week’s development as a win-win for efforts to tackle the three-headed crisis of youth mental health, youth violence and academic lapse made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program won’t serve 20,000 kids as it may have if voters approved the tax, but it will have a strong foundation and partners to help it grow, he said.
“We’re very excited about the partnership. There are obviously a lot of details to be determined. We’re very confident we are going to get something great launched for Denver’s kids and we can work to figure out the right long-term structure,” Johnston said.
My Spark had been one of four citizen-led initiatives set to be in front of voters when ballots were mailed out next month. Petition circulators collected 18,908 signatures for My Spark, 9,326 of which were accepted by the clerk’s office, city officials said.
Opponents in the marijuana industry celebrated the withdrawal on Friday. Voters rejected a similar statewide marijuana tax measure, Proposition 119, last year.
The state already collects a 15% sales tax on retail marijuana products. Denver’s combined taxes on retail marijuana adds up to another 11.4%, meaning every retail marijuana transition in the city is taxed at more than 26%, industry representatives say.
“In pulling this initiative, proponents clearly recognized that community leaders and voters do not support increased taxes on consumer cannabis and want to protect this critical industry made up of hundreds of small businesses,” Marijuana Industry Group board chair Tiffany Goldman said in a statement. “This is the second time in as many years that campaigns viewing the cannabis industry as a piggy bank for personal projects have lost.”
The cannabis industry is happy to support a program like My Spark alongside other businesses, said Chuck Smith, board president of Colorado Leads, another organization that advocates on behalf of marijuana businesses.
“We look forward to joining all of Denver’s business community in equally supporting future policies that provide needed learning opportunities for Denver’s kids,” Smith said in a statement Friday.
