It’s a huge political year in Denver, with the Democratic National Convention arriving into town. So when I read in yesterday’s Rocky Mountain News that Denver Public Schools is planning to put a nine-figure bond issue on the November ballot, I gave pause. Is this really a good idea, especially when enrollment is flat and the district is closing so many school sites? Still, DPS officials are faced with the tough choice of how much they’re willing to beg for:

Details such as, should the city school district ask for $300 million or go for broke at $600 million?

“We’re not assuming a $600 million bond issue, but that’s the sum total” of the identified need, Bill Mosher told DPS board members. He is co-chairman of the citizens committee exploring the bond question.

The board approved a resolution Thursday to notify the Denver Elections Commission that the district plans to participate in the fall election, a decision required to secure a spot on the ballot.

I’m not a gambling man myself, so I don’t have advice for the school district from the perspective of putting the city’s successful tax increase streak on the line. But a glance at the article’s comment section suggests that there might be some traction to an “enough is enough” No campaign. Several longtime Denverites I know have moved outside the city limits in the past year, and the common complaint is the unending growth to the homeowner’s tax burden.

Depending on how critical the school district’s identified needs are ($50+ million to renovate one high school?), DPS probably shouldn’t risk the whole kit and caboodle on the $600 million granddaddy proposal. It will be harder to overcome the opposition of justifiably disgruntled taxpayers with Mayor Hickenlooper otherwise preoccupied with the DNC. Yet even if he does find time to film an ad, what can he do to top his previous performances? Drive a motorcycle off a ramp through flaming hoops onto the roof of a school, Evil Knievel-style?

(And it’s not just Denver: Based on this Rocky article, it’s possible the state’s six largest districts, representing more than 40 percent of Colorado’s public school population, could all be pleading for more money this November. Who can blame them for trying? In recent years, citizens of this state have time and again generously given approval to requested tax hikes.)

However, the bureaucrats and officials who think it’s just another year and another time to burden taxpayers more may wish to think again. A perfect storm of rising energy prices on families, a growing backlash against Gov. Bill Ritter’s unauthorized property tax increase “for the children,” and the potentially costly and disruptive DNC hoopla may add up to a less hospitable climate for 2008 school district bond and mill levy requests.

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