While Washington was transfixed by the evolving responses of Herman Cain to the unfolding sexual harassment story and the financial press was transfixed by the sudden decisions of the Greek government to hold a referendum on the current (evolving?) bailout settlement and to fire the heads of all the military services, Coloradans went to the polls and voted on Proposition 103, championed by Boulder state Senator Rollie Heath, which would have raised the state income tax from 4.63% to 5% and which was marketed as a way to aid teachers and kids. Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper, elected with 51% in 2010 against split opposition, stayed neutral. Voters weren’t: they voted 64%-36% against 103.
The county by county returns provide an interesting insight on which Democratic constituencies backed the tax increase. Not the white working class: Pueblo County voted 70% no and Adams County, which includes northern and eastern Denver suburbs with increasing Latin populations, voted 69% no. Denver County, coterimous with the central city, voted 54% no. The only counties voting yes were Pitkin (Aspen, 57% yes), Boulder (University of Colorado, 54% yes) and San Miguel (Telluride, 52% yes). Also casting higher than average percentages but less than 50% yes (this may not exhaust the list since not all the counties have reported results in my source) were Larimer County (Colorado State University) and counties that, like Pitkin and San Miguel, that I call skitopias (Summit, Eagle, Routt, Garfield, Gunnison, Ouray, Montezuma, La Plata). The skitopia counties have populations that consist of two groups, rich people who like to sky and can afford to live in the mountains and young people who serve them, working as waiters, store clerks, house cleaners, etc. These resemble the two groups described by the Atlantic’s Megan McArdle in a characteristically fascinating and insightful (and long) blogpost.
So who’s for higher taxes? On the one hand the university town people, living high off the higher education bubble for years but now afraid it may burst, and on the other hand the skitopia people, relatively indifferent to tax rates either because they’re very rich or because they’re too poor to pay taxes. The white working class and upwardly mobile Latinos join the exurbanites in Douglas County (67% no) and Elbert County (78% no, the highest in the state) in voting no. In other words, people who work for a living and pay taxes.
Relevance for 2012? Well, Obama strategists have pointed to Colorado as the model for a state they hope to carry again–relatively high income, high education–and it voted 54%-45% for Obama in 2008. The results for the university towns and the skitopias bode well for him. The results from the rest of the state don’t.
