Ballot Question 2A: A Quarter-Cent Pueblo Sales Tax for Fire and Public-Safety Technology, With No End Date in the Text
It is the only one of the mayor’s four proposed quarter-cent taxes that City Council sent to voters. The question estimates about $5.9 million in its first full year.
Updated November 1, 2026: We checked the amount ($5,878,267 in the first full year), the January 1, 2027 start and the absence of an end date against Pueblo County's official 2026 sample ballot; they match. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Mail ballots must reach the county by 7 p.m. that day, so use a drop box rather than the mail.
City of Pueblo voters will decide Ballot Question 2A, a 0.25% sales and use tax starting January 1, 2027, to be spent “solely for Department of Fire and Technology Related to Public Safety purposes within the City of Pueblo,” according to the ballot text published by KRDO on October 9. The question estimates the increase at $5,878,267 in the first full fiscal year.
The ballot text, as published, gives a start date but no end date. The separate zoo tax on the same ballot, Question 2B, expires after 2031.
What the question says
- Rate: an added 0.25% city sales and use tax, under Ordinance No. 11243.
- Amount: $5,878,267 in the first full fiscal year, and whatever the tax raises in later years.
- Start: January 1, 2027. No sunset appears in the text KRDO published.
- Use: money goes into a special “Department of Fire and Technology Related to Public Safety Sales and Use Tax Fund.”
- TABOR: the city asks to collect, keep and spend the money as a “voter-approved revenue change,” an exception to the limits in Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution.
The text does not define “technology related to public safety” or say how the money would be divided between the fire department and technology.
How it got here
In June, Mayor Heather Graham floated four separate quarter-cent sales taxes, KRDO reported on June 2: roads and infrastructure; parks, pools and programs; nonprofits and other outside groups; and fire services and technology. KRDO reported that the fire portion would address several stations that fall below expected standards and need updated gear and improvements, and that the technology piece focused on broadband and IT.
KRDO also reported then that the city projected a $10 million deficit without changes and had about $1.2 million in reserves. Graham warned that 2028 could bring $8 million to $9 million in cuts affecting roughly 80 to 100 jobs, according to KRDO. “City sales tax has not been raised in 50 years,” she said.
When City Council voted on the four ordinances, only the fire and technology tax passed, 5-2, KOAA reported. The parks, roads and nonprofit taxes each failed 4-3 and will not be on the ballot. KOAA’s page does not show the date of the vote or how each member voted.
Context for voters
Pueblo shoppers pay 7.6% in total sales tax: 3.7% city, 2.9% state and 1% county, according to KRDO’s June report. The city already has a 0.2% public safety sales tax for police, passed in 2018 and renewed in 2022 for five years, KRDO reported.
In November 2025, Pueblo voters rejected a one-percentage-point city sales tax increase for the general fund, 4,946 to 21,017, according to the Pueblo Star Journal. That was also numbered Question 2A, but it is a different measure.
What we don’t know yet
- Whether Ordinance No. 11243 contains a sunset that the ballot text does not show. The Ledger has not read the ordinance.
- The fire department’s list of stations, vehicles or equipment the tax would pay for, and the technology projects it would cover.
- The date of the council vote and the roll call.
- How the city would report spending from the special fund.