This November, voters in Colorado Springs will decide on a number of school board candidates, and will also vote on several local and statewide issues. You can visit the official information page from El Paso County here. Also, KRCC participated in the voter forum from Citizens Project, and here is the audio of that forum. Please note, participants in the forum were kept to time limits.
You can listen to or download the full audio of the forum here (about 2 hours):
You can also jump to each individual race/issue as represented at the forum by clicking any of the links below.
Academy School District 20
Colorado Springs School District 11
Memorial Health System Ballot Question
State Issue 103
In order of how they appear on the ballot, candidates are Kim Wright, Glenn L. Strebe, Bill Murray, and Tracey Johnson. (Vote for two.)
Tracey Johnson was present and spoke at the Citizens Project Forum. You can hear what she has to say here:
(Please remember, all speakers were kept to time limits.)
Colorado Springs School District 11
In order of how they appear on the ballot, the candidates for Colorado Springs School District 20 are the following (vote for four):
Jan Tanner
Elaine Naleski
Nora Brown
E.J. "Jim" Mason
Judith K. Walton
Bob Null
Lisanne M. McNew
Kathleen D. Foster
District 11 also offers this information sheet on the candidates with links to candidate bios.
Here is the forum segment regarding District 11 candidates, which opens and closes with statements from candidates, and has Q & A's in between (about 1 hour, 14 minutes long):
Memorial Health System Ballot Question
The ballot language is as follows:
2B - CITY OF COLORADO SPRINGS: "Shall Ordinance No. 1854 (1949) that requires City Council to levy a tax to pay for any operating deficit of Memorial Health System be repealed?"
Bob Lally chairs the Citizens' Commission on Ownership and Governance of Memorial Health System and spoke to the ballot question. Here's the audio (about 15 minutes):
The ballot language is as follows:
Proposition 103 (STATUTORY): Shall state taxes be increased $536.1 million annually in the first full fiscal year and by such amounts as are raised annually thereafter by amendments to the Colorado revised statutes concerning a temporary increase in certain state taxes for additional public education funding, and, in connection therewith, increasing the rate of the state income tax imposed on all taxpayers from 4.63% to 5% for the 2012 through 2016 income tax years; increasing the rate of the state sales and use tax from 2.9% to 3% for a period of five years commencing on January 1, 2012; requiring that the additional revenues resulting from these increased tax rates be spent only to fund public education from preschool through twelfth grade and public postsecondary education; specifying that the appropriation of the additional tax revenues be in addition to and not substituted for moneys otherwise appropriated for public education from preschool through twelfth grade and public postsecondary education for the 2011-12 fiscal year; and allowing the additional tax revenues to be collected, kept, and spent notwithstanding any limitations provided by law?
Speaking on the issue were supporter Mark Neuman-Lee and opponant Victor Mitchell. The full audio is here (about 23 minutes):
