2023 Ballot Measure 2A FAQ’s
Ballot Measure 2A is brilliant. It continues funding for essential City work, including public safety, human services, and homelessness solutions, while doubling funding for arts and culture in our community, all without raising taxes. I unequivocally and enthusiastically endorse Ballot Measure 2A, and I encourage all Boulder residents to vote in favor of its passage.
-Bob Yates, Former Boulder City Council
NAACP Boulder County supported Ballot 2A, unequivocally supporting arts and culture programming in Boulder. Through the arts we, as a community, can defy stereotypes, share cultural identities, narratives and values--artists have always paved the way to freedom.”
- NAACP Boulder County
The arts are the heart and soul of our community. Fortunately we have a huge opportunity to support them in Boulder with ballot measure 2A. Without raising taxes or cutting city services, this measure would create a dedicated stream of arts and culture funding for the next 20 years. It would be a small amount in the scope of the city budget, but enough to be transformational for our local arts community. Please join me in supporting 2A!
-Aaron Brockett, Mayor
2023 City of Boulder Ballot Measure 2A – Frequently Asked Questions (from the Yes on 2A campaign; updated 1.30.24)
What is the wording of City of Boulder 2023 Ballot Measure 2A? It reads
Without raising additional taxes, shall the existing 0.15 cent city sales and use tax for general fund purposes, approved by the voters by Ordinance 7300, be extended beyond the current expiration date of December 31, 2024, until December 31, 2044, with the revenue from such tax extension and all earnings thereon be used to fund services and projects as follows:
50% for fire and emergency response services, public safety services, human services, homeless solutions and services, parks, and other general fund purposes;
50% for arts, culture, and heritage purposes; including direct and grant funding for arts and culture nonprofits, professional artists, arts education, venues and workspaces, public art, and multicultural programs;
and in connection therewith shall any earnings from the revenues from such tax extension constitute a voter approved revenue change and an exception to the revenue and spending limits of Article X section 20 of the Colorado constitution.
Will the dedication of half the 0.15% tax revenues for the arts necessitate cuts to other city services? No, it will not necessitate cuts in services! This has been confirmed by Mayor Aaron Brocket and the City’s budget staff. The remaining 50% of this sales tax will go into the City's General Fund. When combined with the savings from the 2022 voter-approved Library District, the 0.15% tax will provide additional funding for homeless solutions and behavioral health, public safety, human services, parks, and other General Fund needs.
In addition, the arts are a powerful economic engine that generate incremental spending at local restaurants, hotels, and local businesses, and, in so doing, generate additional sales tax revenues that flow into the City’s General Fund to fund other priorities.
What is the General Fund? The General Fund is the portion of the budget that covers many of the City’s function areas, including maintenance of facilities, paths, and parks, housing and human service programs, public safety, arts and culture, communications, and, currently, library services. In 2023, the City’s General Fund budget totals $188.4 million and is funded through sales and use taxes, property taxes, and other revenues. The City’s total budget is $515.4 million. For more details, see the City of Boulder’s Budget in Brief website page: https://stories.opengov.com/cityofboulderco/published/XpUuOdObI
or the City’s 2023 Budget website page: https://stories.opengov.com/cityofboulderco/published/pdIs2G3DD
How much does the City currently spend on the arts, and what does current funding support? The City’s 2023 budget provides $1.8 million for cultural affairs through the City’s Office of Arts and Culture. Slightly over half of this amount, $925K, supports the City’s grants program to nonprofit organizations. The remainder covers staffing and internal expenses. The lions’ share of the grants program ($800K) provides critical multi-year general operating support to 42 arts organizations. The remaining $125K supports project grants, grants to artists and arts educators and capacity building funds.
How much money will this tax extension generate for the General Fund and Arts, Culture, and Heritage purposes? While the final amount will be based on actual sales tax collections, the City of Boulder as of September 2023 estimates the tax will generate $7.5 million annually, starting in 2025. This would provide an estimated $3.75 million for the General Fund (which equates to about 2% of General Fund revenues) and $3.75 million dedicated to arts, culture, and heritage (collectively referred to as “the arts”).
Are there other dedicated (vs. General Fund) sales taxes in the City of Boulder, and if so, what do they support? Yes, dedicated sales taxes have long supported the City’s investments in key priorities. Among the most noteworthy are the dedicated taxes supporting the City’s visionary investments in Open Space ($34 million in 2023) as well as Parks and Recreation ($11 million in 2023, almost 1/3 of the City’s total Parks and Recreation budget) and Transportation ($33 million). In addition, the City’s Community, Culture, Safety and Resiliency (“CCRS” Tax) is a dedicated sales tax, but the primary purpose of the tax is to support renovation and capital investments of City-owned facilities and infrastructure.
Does public support for arts and culture in Boulder generate a positive return on investment? Yes! The City currently spends $1.8 million on arts and culture, yet Boulder’s arts and culture industry catalyzes significantly more in revenues. According to a 2023 study by Americans for the Arts, Boulder’s nonprofit arts and culture industry generated over $115 million in economic activity in 2022, producing $4.6 million in city and county government revenues and supporting 2,451 full-time equivalent jobs (almost $80 million in household income). Event-related spending (excluding the cost of admission) at restaurants, hotels, and local businesses by 1.9 million arts and culture event attendees totaled almost $62 million.
How did this measure get on the ballot? In 2023, Create Boulder identified a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure long-term dedicated funding for the arts by extending an existing 0.15% general purpose sales tax sunsetting in 2024. Create Boulder launched a ballot measure petition and signature gathering campaign to place the measure on the 2023 November ballot with 100% of the proceeds dedicated to arts, culture, and heritage. Together with the arts community, we gathered over 4,000 signatures, meeting the legal threshold for a citizen-led ballot initiative. Create Boulder subsequently negotiated a compromise measure with City Council that would split the tax between the arts and the City’s general fund to help avoid cuts to funding for other community priorities.
Once the compromise measure was on the ballot as Ballot Measure 2A, Create Boulder’s board members led the campaign, marshalling critical support from the arts community and numerous other community organizations and leaders.
How does the City’s current support for the arts compare to other cities, and how much would the City need to spend to reach comparable levels? Current spending of $1.8 million equates to $17/resident, which is 60% less than what comparable cities spend, according to the most recent City of Boulder research data. Comparable cities on average spend $43/per capital, which would equate to $4.5 million annually for the City of Boulder. In 2023, Loveland, Arvada and Fort Collins will spend $3.2 million, $4.4 million and $5 million, respectively.
In addition, Boulder lacks the kind of cultural amenities that are available in many communities in Colorado. Fort Collins and Arvada invested in arts facilities and infrastructure in the 1970’s, while Basalt, Breckenridge, Lone Tree, Parker, and Silverthorne have built cultural arts facilities in recent years. Idaho Springs and Thornton are also planning new arts facilities, and Colorado Springs is making major investments to renovate its historic downtown theater. Loveland, Carbondale, Trinidad, Ridgeway, and Grand Lake have built affordable live-work spaces and other supporting spaces for creatives in recent years. Grand Junction and Colorado Springs are in advanced planning stages to build affordable artist-centric live-work spaces.
What will the 50% for the arts portion be used for? How will the City determine how the funds are spent? What oversight will there be? The ballot measure reads “50% for arts, culture, and heritage purposes; including direct and grant funding for arts and culture nonprofits, professional artists, arts education, venues and workspaces, public art and multi-cultural programs.”
The City’s 2015 Community Cultural Plan is its master plan for arts and culture and sunsets in 2024. The Plan sets forth priorities and goals that determine how the City’s arts and culture resources are allocated. There was insufficient funding for the City to make progress on all the goals articulated in the current Plan, but the dedicated funds should provide resources needed to implement the Plan’s strategies. Strategies that needed additional resources to fully implement included support for our cultural organizations, artists , and creative professionals, and create and enhance venues.
The current Plan will be refined and updated in 2024 with robust input from Boulder’s artists, arts and culture leaders, arts educators, and the broader community. The Office of Arts and Culture will have over a year to determine how the funds should be distributed to support the Plan, and City Council will need to approve the new Plan before the start of 2025, the first year of the tax extension. The Boulder Arts Commission (BAC) rigorously oversees the City’s arts and culture grants and public art programs pursuant to the City’s charter and revised code. The BAC’s seven members are appointed by City Council for five-year terms.
In lieu of this ballot initiative, could the City have allocated long-term dedicated funding for arts and culture from the General Fund? No, because all spending from the General Fund is subject to annual approval by City Council through the City’s annual budgeting process. This means that funding amounts can and do vary from year to year. The only way to ensure long-term funding for arts and culture is by dedicating a tax, as has been done for decades for both Open Space and Parks and Recreation.
How would $3.75 million of spending for the Office of Arts and Culture compare to the City’s spending on other ‘quality of life’ services? The spending would total 5% of what the City spends to support Open Space and Parks and Recreation, which are budgeted at $36.2 million and $35.9 million, respectively, or $72.1 million combined in 2023.
Doesn’t the City already provide dedicated funding for the arts through the Community, Culture, Safety and Resiliency (‘CCRS’) Tax? No! The CCRS Tax funds capital expenditures, not on-going operations. Although 30% of the tax supported renovation of The Dairy and Museum of Boulder when the tax was first passed in 2014, the current iteration of the tax, which was renewed for 15 years in 2021, dedicates only 10% of the proceeds to ALL nonprofits in the City, including those involved in human services. The remaining 90% supports capital investments by the City of Boulder in City-owned properties (including fire stations, East Boulder Recreation Center renovations, transportation-related investments, and more).
Doesn’t the 7-county Metro-Denver Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (“SCFD”) already support our nonprofit arts organizations? Yes, but Boulder organizations receive significantly less than their peers in other counties due to Boulder County’s relatively small tax base. In 2023, the largest general operating support grant awarded to Boulder’s Tier III organizations (the Tier for all but four of Boulder’s largest SCFD-funded organizations) was $35,000. This compares to the largest awards of between $65,000 and $221,000 for Tier III organizations in other Metro-Denver counties.
A Broad Coalition of Community Organizations Supporting 2A
3rd Law Dance/Theater, Ars Nova Singers, Butterfly Effect Theater (BETC), Boulder Bach Festival, Boulder Ballet, Boulder Chorale, Boulder International Film Festival, Boulder JCC, Boulder Metalsmithing Association, Boulder MUSE, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), Boulder Opera, Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Boulder Studio Arts, Boulder Symphony, Cantabile, Circle of Care, Colorado Chautauqua Association, Colorado Mahlerfest, Colorado Music Festival, The Dairy Arts Center, EcoArts Connections, El Centro AMISTAD, eTown Hall, Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance, Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras, JLF Colorado, Junkyard Social, Local Theater Company, Mi Chantli, Museum of Boulder, The New Local, NoBo Arts District, Open Studios, Parlando School of Musical Arts, Pro Musica Colorado, Roots Music Project, Sans Souci Festival of Dance and Cinema, The Spark, Street Wise Arts, TOGETHR, Viva Theater, Wild Heart Dance
(1) Click HERE for a link to City of Boulder Senior Budget Manager Mark Woulf’s explanation at the August 17, 2023 City Council meeting. (2) New City investments include: the behavioral health/Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program, which will dispatch mental health clinicians and paramedics instead of police officers to certain types of calls and a homelessness day services center. (3) (4) 2022 Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading industry group committed to advancing the arts and arts education. (5) City of Boulder Community Cultural Plan 2015 Benchmark Study, page 12; $33 per capita adjusted to 2023 dollars (6) See Title 14 – The Arts in the City’s Charter and Municipal Code: https://library.municode.com/co/boulder/codes/municipal_code?nodeId=TIT14AR