A new document made public by the Colorado State Land Board shows that should Proposition 112 pass, public schools would lose, at a minimum, $230 million in the first three years alone.
Little known fact: the state of Colorado is one of the (if not the) largest subsurface landowners in the state. If Prop 112, which is basically a ban on oil and gas development in Colorado, passes, it will eliminate 60% of revenue from mineral development – and this impacts public schools.
By law, revenue from mineral development on the Land Board’s lands goes to public education in Colorado. Since 2008, the BEST grant program (funded by these revenues) has awarded $1.7 billion in grants that support improvements in education and facilities for over 180,000 students.
That’s nothing to sneeze at. Here’s what one former teacher said, according to a press release:
“Proposition 112 deprives mineral owners like me of my property rights and strips much-needed funding from education,” said Cristy Koeneke, a retired educator and mineral owner from Arvada. “Proposition 112 is far too heavy-handed. It deprives our public schools of millions of dollars at a time when we are already dealing with huge gaps in funding. I’m a firm believer in regulating mineral development, but any new restrictions should be dependent on scientific research and consensus, not arbitrary lines in the sand.”
In case the jobs that Prop 112 would decimate aren’t enough for you, here’s just another reason that this ill-conceived notion is wrong for Colorado.