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This November, Colorado voters will decide if they want to raise taxes to give education funding a major boost.

Earlier this year, thousands of Colorado teachers walked out of classrooms to call for more funding. Poudre School District was among the many districts that shut down for the day as teachers flocked to Denver to make their voices heard.

Colorado falls about $2,800 below the national average in per-pupil spending. Parents have to pay for full-day kindergarten. Teachers often struggle to afford to live in the cities in which they teach. About 1 in 5 teachers take on second jobs to make ends meet.

Amendment 73, which would require 55 percent of the vote to pass, offers a potential solution to school funding woes.

Here’s what you need to know about the ballot issue:

What is Amendment 73?

Amendment 73, also known as Great Schools Thriving Communities, is a graduated income tax that aims to increase funding — to the tune of $1.6 billion — for schools across Colorado.

That would mean about $43 million for Poudre School District, school board member Cathy Kipp previously told the Coloradoan.

What is it for?

Money raised by the tax statewide would:

Increase base per-pupil funding from $6,546 to $7,300.

Fully fund full-day kindergarten.

Increase special education funding by $120 million.

Increase English language proficiency programs by $20 million.

Increase gifted and talented programs by $10 million.

Increase preschool funding by $10 million.

Who decides how the money is spent?

Colorado is a local control state, so each school board would decide how the additional money from the increased per pupil base is spent. If passed, PSD plans to hold public forums to learn about community priorities, much like it has with the community forums on later school start times.

In September, the board passed a resolution supporting Amendment 73. In the resolution, the board identified several of its own priorities:

Increasing teacher salaries

Smaller class sizes

More mental health professionals and counselors

More activities and real-world experiences, such as internships and mentorships

More early childhood access across the district

More supplies and materials

More course offerings, including career and technical education

More specialists to work with students in high needs areas

Greater measures to ensure the safety and security of all district students

How would Amendment 73 affect my tax bill?

If you’re like most Coloradans who earn less than $150,000 per year, Amendment 73 won’t affect you at all. According to the Colorado Education Association, nearly 92 percent of Coloradans fall below that tax bracket.

If you do make more than $150,000 each year, Amendment 73 would raise your taxes on an ongoing basis.

All income between $150,000 and $200,000 would be taxed at 5 percent. That’s 0.37 percentage points more than the current flat income tax of 4.63 percent. The average increase per taxpayer would be $81 annually, according to a fiscal impact statement.

All income between $200,001 and $300,000 each year would be taxed at 6 percent. The average increase per taxpayer would be $729.

All income between $300,000 and $500,000 would be taxed at 7 percent. The average increase per taxpayer would be $3,456.

All income at $500,001 and above would be taxed at 8.25 percent. The average increase per taxpayer would be $42,428.

Amendment 73 would also raise corporate tax rates from 4.63 percent to 6 percent.

The amendment would also lower residential and corporate property taxes levied by school districts, from 7.2 percent to 7.0 percent.

Arguments for Amendment 73

Colorado falls well below the national average for how much it spends on each student.

At a base level, Colorado spends $6,546 per student. Additional funding is provided to districts based on how many students who qualify for free-and-reduced price lunch, an indicator for poverty; special needs students; gifted and talented students; and English language learning students the district serves. That additional funding brings Colorado's average per-pupil spending to $9,733.

According to Education Week, the national average of per-pupil spending was $12,526 as of June 2018. That means Colorado spent about $2,800 below the national average per student. The U.S Census Bureau ranks Colorado at No. 39 in the nation for per pupil spending.

Colorado has trailed the national average since before the turn of the century.

Teacher salaries are below the national average, causing some teachers to work second jobs, move to other states, or leave the profession entirely.

To cut costs and attract teachers, about 58 percent of Colorado school districts, BOCES-operated schools and select Charter School Institute schools have moved to four-day weeks, according to the Colorado Department of Education. Most cite finances as a major driver behind that decision.

Districts struggle to keep other staff, too. PSD has struggled to attract bus drivers, even after it bumped up the hourly wage and offered benefits.

Melanie Potyondy, a school psychologist at Rocky Mountain High School, said in a previous interview she didn’t have the money to help staff to get ahead of mental health struggles in the district.

“We’re not able to devote the time or the energy to do that preventative work,” Potyondy said. “We’re running around putting Band-Aids on things. We’re doing what we can.”

That preventive work is important. According to the Colorado Health Institute, Colorado has the ninth highest suicide rate in the country. It’s the leading cause of death for people 10 to 24 years old.

Arguments against Amendment 73

Amendment 73 would disproportionately affect small business owners, says David May, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce.

The tax affects total income, not just an individual's income, May said. So because of how LLCs and S corporation businesses have to file, small business owners could higher taxes if their business brings in more than $150,000 even if they don't necessarily earn that much.

"By creating this two-tier system," May said, "proponents are targeting top-tier people, but they're also scooping up small businesses."

Larimer County Assessor Steve Miller also said the math is misleading.

Proponents argue that increasing corporate tax rates from 4.63 percent to 6 percent is a small increase, Miller said.

"They’ll say we’ll only increase taxes 1.37 percent, but it’s an increase of 1.37 percentage points," Miller said, which means it's actually a 30 percent increase in how much businesses would be charged.

The $150,000 income threshold is fixed, but as Colorado's economy continues to grow and inflation increases over time, more Coloradans will fall into that tax bracket, Miller said.

Furthermore, Miller said, Amendment 73's tax rates create even more complications in the state budget because of the complex Gallagher Amendment. He says the result, according to re-calculations, will be less property taxes for special districts — city, county, library and fire districts — that are not supposed to be affected by Amendment 73's property tax changes.

Adding constitutional amendments has caused issues, Miller said, and hard-to-change amendments aren't the way to fix those problems.

"Just don’t do it," Miller said.

Who are the biggest backers?

Great Schools, Thriving Communities, the pro-Amendment 73 committee, raised more than $627,000 as of Sept. 17, according to Tracer, a campaign finance disclosure website.

The top 10 campaign donors:

Stand for Children Inc. based in Portland, Oregon. Some donations were monetary, some service-based, such as providing polling services and staff time for campaign activities. Total donations come to $119,507.

Colorado Fund for Children and Public Education, with total donations at $100,420.

Judi Wagner in Littleton contributed $100,000.

Merle Chambers contributed $100,000.

Great Education Colorado Issue Committee, based in Denver, contributed consulting and staff services worth $93,680.73.

Colorado Fiscal Institute contributed $30,000.

American Federation of Teachers Solidarity 527 contributed $25,000.

Leadership for Educational Equity, based in Washington, D.C., contributed $20,000.

For Denver Kids, based in Denver, contributed $20,000.

Save the Children, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, contributed $10,000.

Who are the biggest opponents?

As of Oct. 1, the committee called "Blank Check. Blatant Deception. Vote no on 73" had raised $728,899 total contributions.

The top 10 contributors:

Colorado Economic Leadership Fund, based in Denver, contributed $284,500.

Denver South Economic Development Partnership, based in Englewood, contributed $50,000.

Colorado Association of Mechanical and Plumbing Contractors contributed $25,000.

Associated General Contractors, based in Denver, contributed $25,000.

First Bank contributed $17,500.

Colorado Farm Bureau contributed $10,000.

Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs contributed $10,000.

Platte River Equity contributed $10,000.

Terry Considine, with AMICO Real Estate Professional in Denver, contributed $10,000.

Mike Zoellner, in Denver, contributed $5,000.

Does spending more money help?

The findings are mixed, though more recent research suggests spending more does have a positive impact for students.

According to a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, increased spending raises graduation rates and boosts adult income. When a district’s per-pupil spending went up 10 percent, kids exposed to the increased funding for all 12 school-age years earned more money and were less likely to be poor.

According to the study, schools spent $12,600 on average per pupil. The findings suggest a permanent 10 percent spending increase — or an increase of $1,260 per student overall — would lead to 7 percent higher wages at age 40, and a 3 percentage point lower likelihood of adult poverty among those exposed to the spending increases across all 12 years of their public school education, according to Northwestern University's website.

However, a study conducted by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, measured education spending and SAT test scores, which indicate college readiness, from the 1990s to 2012.

"Adjusted state SAT scores have declined by an average of 3 percent ... That disappointing record comes despite a more-than-doubling in inflation-adjusted per pupil public-school spending over the same period (the average state spending increase was 120 percent)," according to the study. "Consistent with those patterns, there has been essentially no correlation between what states have spent on education and their measured academic outcomes."