By The Johnson Team · Last updated November 2026
I’m a Colorado Springs native, and I have watched this place change for about 40 years. Lately the growth looks different. Suburban sprawl and national chains no longer set the pace the way they once did. Tejon Street, once sleepy, is busy with local businesses, Weidner Field draws crowds for soccer, and apartment buildings seem to appear overnight. The Census Bureau estimates El Paso County had about 757,000 residents in mid-2025, and we look less like a quiet bedroom community and more like a large metro.
That growth brings real challenges, and it means we have decisions to make about how it happens. Last week’s election forced decisions on a lot of them: how we get around, how we pay for our schools, what the state taxes, and how we fund public safety. Here is what voters decided.
Front Range passenger rail (Issue 7A)
El Paso County voted no on the Front Range passenger rail tax, 104,461 to 99,741. The tax passes anyway. The vote that counted was district-wide, where about 55% to 56% said yes (unofficial results as of Nov. 9). Colorado Springs sits inside that district, so Colorado Springs pays.
7A is a permanent 0.333% sales and use tax inside the Front Range Passenger Rail District, about 33 cents on every $100 spent. It is expected to raise about $295 million a year and allows up to $580 million in debt.
The district’s Delivery Plan, dated Aug. 31, 2026 (see the Colorado Connector FAQ), starts with Denver to Fort Collins in 2029, with three daily round trips. A second phase in 2032 adds Colorado Springs and Pueblo, with two daily round trips between Denver and Pueblo, and raises Denver to Fort Collins to four. After 2032, service is planned to grow toward eight daily round trips between Denver and Pueblo. Those are planned dates, not commitments. The district models fares at about 19 cents a mile, which it says would turn a roughly $55 drive from Denver to Fort Collins into about a $14 train ride. It has not published a fare for the Colorado Springs trip. The Colorado Springs station is planned beside the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum.
My view: a downtown station gives people here a way to get to Denver for a game, a concert, a museum or a show without sitting on I-25. As service grows, I expect it could ease rush hour too. I also have mixed feelings about Colorado Springs becoming less of a bedroom community and more of a metropolitan hub. The growth is coming either way. I’d rather find ways to benefit from it than spend my time wishing it would stop.
D11 school bond (Issue 4A)
4A is a $775 million general obligation bond for Colorado Springs School District 11. It leads with about 51% to 52% yes in unofficial results as of Nov. 9, and the final result is still pending certification. The levy applies to taxable property in the district, and the average-value home would pay about $252 to $264 a year. The bond is capped at $49.8 million a year and $1.48 billion in total repayment, over about 25 to 30 years.
The district’s bond project plans give each school its own page, and you can look up yours there. Five campuses get the largest allocations:
- Palmer High School: $150 million for the second phase of its rebuild, a new facility that includes fine arts and athletics spaces.
- Holmes Middle School: $80 million for a new building.
- Thomas MacLaren: about $24 million, mostly to create new classrooms.
- Coronado High School: $20 million, led by $15 million for the library and $5 million for career and technical education.
- Doherty High School: $20 million, led by $15 million for specialized career and technical education and $5 million for the cafeteria.
The district also plans heating, cooling, roofing and other building-system work on top of those allocations at many schools, including $40 million at Doherty and $25 million at Coronado.
Bond money cannot pay salaries. A board resolution says money freed up from the existing override would go to teacher pay, subject to annual appropriation.
Many of these schools clearly need investment. Whether the full $775 million package is the right way to pay for it is a tougher question. The cap on total repayment is $1.48 billion against $775 million borrowed.
Colorado income tax (Amendment 87 and Proposition 136)
Proposition 136, which would have capped the state income tax rate at 4.4%, failed. Amendment 87 passed (unofficial as of Nov. 9), and starting in 2027 it replaces the flat 4.4% rate with a graduated one.
The rates are marginal: each rate applies only to the taxable income inside its bracket. Rates run from 3.7% on the first $25,000 of taxable income up to 8.4% on taxable income above $1 million, and the $100,001 to $500,000 band stays at 4.4%. Someone with $600,000 in taxable income pays 7.4% only on the portion above $500,000. Taxable income up to $100,000 is taxed at 3.7% or 4.2%, below today’s 4.4%. The Blue Book analysis has every bracket.
One provision especially relevant to homeowners: taxable gains from selling a primary residence that exceed the federal exclusion remain subject to the 4.4% state rate.
The brackets are not adjusted for inflation. As wages rise over time, more of taxpayers’ incomes fall into the higher brackets, so the effective rate people pay climbs even when their buying power does not.
The ballot title puts the extra revenue at $2.7 billion a year. It applies to individuals, estates, trusts and corporations. The ballot language directs the extra money to K-12 education, health care and early childhood programs.
Sheriff’s sales tax (Issue 1A)
1A extends the existing 0.23% county sales tax, $2.30 per $1,000, from Jan. 1, 2029 to Jan. 1, 2037. It is not a new tax and not an increase. It raises about $40 million a year and supports 197 Sheriff’s Office employees. It passed with about 75% yes, 205,404 to 70,165, in the Nov. 4 count (unofficial). The money goes to three uses: law enforcement, criminal justice (including the jail), and emergency response, such as wildland fire and vehicles.
What comes next
Colorado Springs just made big investments in how it moves, how it teaches its kids and how it keeps people safe. I’m hopeful about what they can do for the city and its schools. But a promise made to voters is not a result. We should judge these decisions by what gets built, what it costs and whether it works. Results are unofficial until certified, and the Secretary of State’s results page will show the final numbers.
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