Colorado Tradeoffs
- Colorado State Capitol (Photo by John Herrick)
Colorado voters will decide three ballot questions this fall that change how much revenue the state collects. Colorado Tradeoffs is an online simulation that asks you to answer those three questions yourself, and then work with whatever money your answers leave you.
If your choices open a shortfall, you’ll have to close it. If they leave a surplus, you decide where it goes. Either way you’ll go through the state’s major programs and choose to cut spending, add to it, or leave it where it is.
It takes about ten minutes and works fine on a phone. You don’t need to know anything about the state budget going in, since each choice explains what it costs and who it affects.
When you finish, you’ll see how your choices lined up against everyone else’s. You’ll also have the chance to sign up for a conversation with Coloradans from other parts of the state about how they marked their ballot and where they put the money. It’s online on Saturday, September 19 at 9:00 a.m. The meeting is optional — you can do the simulation and skip it.
A few things people tend to ask. The simulation doesn’t take a side on any of the three measures, and the content was reviewed for neutrality before it went up. It isn’t a poll or a vote, and it has no bearing on the election. Your individual answers stay private, and results are reported only in aggregate.
We’d ask you to finish by September 19. Colorado news organizations will be running this later in the fall as part of their election coverage, so you’re seeing it early. If you think it’s worth someone else’s time, please pass it on.
Colorado Tradeoffs is presented by COLab, a shared resource hub for Colorado journalism, Colorado Tradeoffs is produced by the Colorado News Collaborative, the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, and Weigh In, a Colorado-based civic engagement company.