Yes on state measures LL, MM and on county measure 1A
John Pandolfo Education Matters – October 16, 2025
Colorado Propositions LL and MM and San Miguel County (SMC) Ballot Measure 1A have the potential to either help, or negatively impact, students in the Telluride School District. Propositions LL and MM relate to the Healthy School Meals for All program, and Ballot Measure 1A relates to both the SMC Early Childhood Education Fund and the SMC Mental Health Services Fund.
I urge you to approve these ballot measures on Nov. 4 to ensure continued nutritional and behavioral health support for our students.
In November 2022, Colorado voters passed Proposition FF, which created the Healthy School Meals for All Program (HSMA). This program was intended to ensure that students at all public schools in Colorado had the opportunity to receive free and healthy school meals, incentivized school lunch programs to purchase Colorado food products, increased wages or provided stipends to school food programs, and offered training, equipment and technical assistance to food programs.
School districts generally subsidize their food service programs from their general funds, so HSMA has helped in a small way to ease the burden on local budgets in addition to providing healthy meals for all students. Proposition FF created the funding for the program by limiting tax deductions on households with $300,000 or more in adjusted gross income.
However, over the past few years the tax revenue collected for HSMA has been less than the actual costs of the program and that combined with TABOR implications has put the program at risk. Propositions LL and MM have both been referred to the voters by the Colorado General Assembly to keep the program funded.
Proposition LL, if passed, will allow HSMA to retain $12.4 million in tax revenue, including funds collected and associated interest earned, rather than returning those funds to those households with $300,000 or more in adjusted gross income via TABOR refunds.
Read the rest of the Telluride Times article here.
