The Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a November ballot measure during its Aug. 27 meeting that would restore the school’s ability to adjust its mill levy through an old voter-approved provision.

The mill levy provision, originally approved by voters in 2018, would enable the college to expand training for nurses, first responders, in-demand skilled trades and develop innovative housing strategies to retain talent in mountain communities for a period of 10 years without imposing any new tax, according to a Friday news release.

In 2018, voters provided the college’s locally elected trustees with authority to adjust the college’s mill levy for the purpose of maintaining revenues that would be lost due to statewide property tax assessment rate reductions. Over the past two years, the board voluntarily returned $47 million in relief to taxpayers by temporarily adjusting its mill downward to 3.23 mills (from 4.241) in response to rising property valuations and a balanced college budget, the release states.

However, in 2024 the state legislature enacted House Bill 24-1001, which caps local governments’ revenue growth at 5.25% above the prior year’s level, thereby restricting Colorado Mountain College’s ability to adjust its revenues and mill levy in future years, even within the authority voters previously approved.

“This November’s vote is about reaffirming the trust voters placed in us in 2018,” Chris Romer, president of the Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees, said in the news release. “It is not a tax increase; it’s a restoration of local control, grounded in the investment our communities made in us seven years ago. With this flexibility, (the college) will expand programs that are vital to local employers and lead to good jobs for students.”