Longmont voters to decide public-safety tax package and charter changes
The Nov. 3 ballot will include a public-safety tax measure projected to raise $19.5 million in its first full year, along with questions on open space, ranked-choice voting and council election cycles.
Longmont City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to call a Nov. 3, 2026, special municipal election featuring a public-safety tax package and three proposed changes to the city’s Home Rule Charter. Councilmember Diane Christ opposed the resolution after unsuccessfully moving to delay the election until 2027.
The ballot questions would address public-safety sales and property taxes, voter approval for the sale or conveyance of open-space land, ranked-choice voting and the scheduling of council elections.
Public-safety taxes
The tax proposal, identified as Ordinance 2026-53, would raise Longmont’s sales-and-use tax from 3.53% to 3.8653% beginning Jan. 1, 2027. It also would authorize a property-tax levy of up to 2.44 mills beginning with 2027 tax collections.
The city’s Aug. 11 council packet estimates the combined proposal would raise $19.5 million in its first full year and about $20.86 million annually by 2036. The 2036 estimate includes about $14.61 million from sales-and-use tax and $6.27 million from property tax.
The packet says the proposal would support 86 positions over 10 years: 43 police officers, 31 firefighters and 12 Collaborative Services employees. The council amended the measure to expressly include behavioral-health response, crisis response, co-responder services, diversion programs and other preventive public-safety services.
The estimates also project an additional $3.30 per $1,000 in purchases, about $75 a year for a $500,000 home and about $305 a year for a $500,000 commercial property. Actual property-tax bills can vary with assessed value and other factors.
The ordinance would dedicate the new revenue to public safety and allow later mill-levy adjustments to offset specified changes in taxable value or revenue. The ballot language also asks voters to allow the money to be collected and spent outside state constitutional revenue limits.
Charter questions
The ranked-choice voting question would add Charter Section 2.10 and provide for ranked voting, where possible, in mayoral and council elections beginning in November 2029. Plurality voting could be used if certified equipment or final state rules are unavailable. The packet lists no fiscal impact, while a council discussion cited a city clerk estimate of about $100,000 in additional costs beginning in 2029.
A related council-term question would put the three at-large seats in one election cycle and the three ward seats in another, alternating thereafter. It would shorten two transition terms to two years and make subsequent nonmayoral council terms four years. Its approval is contingent on passage of the ranked-choice voting question.
The open-space proposal would require voter approval before open-space land is sold or conveyed. The records reviewed did not include the complete final certified ballot wording for that measure.
Public comments at the Aug. 11 meeting included opposition to ranked-choice voting. Speakers said it could be more complicated, delay results and produce outcomes that do not reflect first-choice vote totals. Another speaker supported voter approval for open-space land sales or conveyances.
Other ballot question
Longmont’s municipal measures are separate from a countywide early-childhood measure. Boulder County’s official ballot-measures page identifies a proposed 2.579-mill levy expected to raise $30 million annually beginning in 2027. County officials estimate it would cost about $115 a year on a $725,000 home. The measure would fund efforts including lower child-care and preschool costs, higher worker compensation, expanded capacity and reduced waitlists.
The county measure would appear throughout Boulder County, while Longmont’s taxes and charter amendments would appear on the city’s portion of the coordinated Nov. 3 election.