Voter approval of 8 Colorado ballot measures formally declared by Gov. Polis

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday issued proclamations formally recognizing voters’ approval of eight statewide ballot measures in the 2022 election, enacting a host of changes ranging from a lower income tax rate to authorized sales of wine in grocery stores.

The Colorado Constitution requires the governor to declare the vote for approved ballot measures within 30 days after the certification of an election, upon which the ballot measures take effect.

“Coloradans voted last November and participated in our democracy,” Polis said in a statement. “Officially validating the results of the citizen and referred initiatives is the next formal step in our work to follow the will of the voters and implement these voter-approved measures.”

Colorado voters decided the fate of 11 different statutory and constitutional measures in November, approving eight and rejecting three.

The eight measures whose approval was formally declared Tuesday are:

• Amendment D, a constitutional measure aimed at ensuring continuity of court services in the newly created 23rd Judicial District, which was approved with 67% of the vote.
• Amendment E, which extends Colorado’s homestead property-tax exemption to Gold Star spouses and was approved with 88% of the vote.
• Proposition FF, a referred statutory measure that will fund a universal free school lunch program by limiting tax deductions for those with high incomes, which was approved with 57% of the vote.
• Proposition GG, a referred statutory measure to add a table breaking down proposed tax changes by income level to future ballot measures, which was approved with 72% of the vote.
• Proposition 121, a statutory measure to reduce the state income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.40%, which was approved with 65% of the vote.
• Proposition 122, a measure legalizing the personal use of psychedelic mushrooms and licensing “healing centers” to provide access to the substances for therapeutic purposes, which passed with 54% of the vote.
• Proposition 123, which dedicates an additional $300 million in state funding to affordable housing programs by exempting the funds from an automatic taxpayer-refund mechanism, and was approved with 53% of the vote.
• Proposition 125, a measure legalizing the sale of wine in grocery stories, which was approved with 51% of the vote.

More than 2.5 million Colorado voters cast a ballot in the November 2022 general election, for a turnout rate of 66.8% of active voters, according to official results certified by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office earlier this month.