(WOODLAND PARK, Colo.) — The City Council of Woodland Park voted unanimously on Monday, March 10, to repeal the 1.09% sales tax first levied for the benefit of Woodland Park School District (WPSD) and kept by city voters in the 2024 General Election.
During the November election, ballot measure 2A, which would have repealed the sales tax, failed to pass by a vote of 2,143 (42.3%) to 2,921 (57.7%).
City Council, in a press release, said the emergency ordinance was passed after it came to the Council’s attention that imminent action by the WPSD School Board “directly aimed at impairing the prerogative of this Council to act in the best interests of City voters with respect to the tax referenced in the foregoing section, all for the benefit of a single charter school in the District.”
City Council wrote an emergency existed, and the ordinance was needed for the immediate preservation of public property, safety, and public health. The council wrote that the ordinance must take place immediately to prevent the subversion of the interests of every single voter and taxpayer in the City of Woodland Park.
WPSD said the district is deeply disappointed by the City Council’s action, which undermines the will of the voters and strains the resources of WPSD.
“We are extremely disheartened by the council’s decision to overturn what our community decisively supported at the ballot box,” said Superintendent Ken Witt. “This funding has played a critical role in advancing the success of our schools, and its removal will have a profoundly negative impact on our operations.”
