Tax measures riding on Rockies coattails

Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 20, 2007 at midnight

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The Rockies maiden voyage to the World Series seems to have lifted the mood and spirit of a city.

But will the excitement make Denver property owners more likely to increase their taxes next month?

At least one local pollster and Denver Councilman Charlie Brown, who has run 20 or more political campaigns, think it could.

"There's nothing like either a Super Bowl or a World Series to put everybody on cloud nine," said pollster Floyd Ciruli.

"If (voters) feel positive about what's happening in their city, they have a tendency to be more inclined to vote 'yes,'" Brown said.

Mayor John Hickenlooper is asking voters to approve a 2.5 mill property tax increase to pay for maintenance of the city's assets and $550 million in bond projects.

If ballot Issues A through I pass, the owner of a home valued at $255,000 would pay $63.27 more in property taxes annually.

Ballots for the Nov. 6 election started hitting mailboxes Saturday.

The Rockies clinched a spot in the World Series on Monday, when many voters checked their mail and found their ballots.

"You couldn't have better luck than to have a local baseball team win this historic opportunity to play in the World Series on the very day that people start to vote," said Ciruli, who is part of a team of political pros Hickenlooper assembled to sell the ballot package to voters.

Brown called Hickenlooper "damn lucky."

"I don't care if you did direct mail pieces every day, you can't buy the feeling of good will in the city and county of Denver, indeed in the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region," he said. "You can't put a price tag on it."

Ciruli said he's conducted several surveys in which residents say the city is headed in the right direction.

The Rockies winning streak only adds to that feeling, he said.

"It really is quite synergistic and very fortunate for the mayor and everybody working on the bond," he said. "From previous polling, they're doing reasonably well. It really is perfect timing."

Eric Sondermann, principal and partner at SE2, one of the political consulting firms working on the "Better Denver" campaign, said it would be "terrific" if Hickenlooper's mill levy request and bond package benefitted from the Rockies' success.

"Obviously, there's a very positive, optimistic vibe in town these days, and if that has a political effect, that's terrific," he said. "But it's not something we're talking about and certainly wasn't something anticipated or foreseen."

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099

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