Colorado BEST grants tie Plateau Valley, Holyoke schools to local bond debt
Oct 6, 2026 · 9 min · 5 segments
- Speakers
Kim MonsonHost
Oct 6, 2026 · 9 min · 5 segments
Kim MonsonHost
Plateau Valley School District 50's levy rose to 35.843 mills by 2025 after voters backed $40.8 million in bonds to match a $26.7 million state best grant.
Voters in Holyoke School District Rewun J decide November 3rd whether to accept a $37.5 million grant below the $42 million their 2024 bond approval required.
Voters in Plateau Valley School District 50 approved $40.8 million in bonds in 2023 to supply the local match for a $26,662.97-few grant from Colorado's Building Excellent Schools Today, BEST program, and the school district's property tax levy has since climbed from 13.644 mills in tax year 2022 to 35.843 mills in 2025.
Holyoke School District RE1J is asking voters November 3rd whether it may accept a $37,511,924.54 best grant below the $42 million threshold written into the bond measure they approved in 2024.
The PK-12 addition and replacement project in Colubrin, a Mesa County town, was budgeted at $67,457.80, with $40,794.108 from the district and $26,662.972 from the state, according to the list of recommended best projects for the 2023-24 fiscal year from the Colorado Department of Education, CDE.
The district opened the building in January, Grand Junction Television Station KJCT reported.
Bob Boswell, chairman and CEO of Laramie Energy, a Denver-based oil and gas producer in western Colorado's Pience Basin, said Oct. 6 on The Kim Monson Show that the Plateau Valley bonds will be repaid from local taxes.
These are farmers and ranchers out there, and they live on a commodity type of income that swings back and forth, Boswell said.
Boswell said Laramie Energy as an operator in the community, pays probably 70% of the taxes that will go towards repaying these bonds over a number of years.
He said the debt would be a burden on this community, the ranchers and farmers, and a deterrent for further development.
Kim Monson said she found a similar arrangement while reviewing local ballot questions for the 2026 Colorado Voter's Guide.
The state comes in and dangles money that doesn't have to be paid back as long as the community comes in, and pledges basically general obligation bonds for a new school, she said.
Across Colorado, a Kim Monson newsroom review of 255 local questions on the November 3 ballot found 158 asking for a tax increase extension, or new debt.
The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's 2023 Tabor Notice shows that ballot issue 4A on the November 7, 2023 ballot asked voters to authorize taxes of up to $3.06 million a year to provide local matching money required for the district to receive $26,662,972 in awarded best grant funds, which are not required to be repaid.
The measure passed 624 to 435, with 58.92% in favor, according to Mesa County's official results.
The district's total levy was 13.644 mills in tax year 2022, with no bond levy, according to the CDE's mill levy summary.
The district's bond, FAQ, had told voters the bond would add approximately 12 mills.
The bond levy was 12.479 mills in 2023, 16.399 mills in 2024, and 21.257 mills in 2025, according to the CDE's 2024-25 mill levy summary, and the Division of Property Taxation in the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
Over the same years, the district's assessed value fell from $216,075,390 to $136,138,330.
Voters in the Holyoke District approved ballot issue 5K on November 5, 2024, authorizing up to $14.84 million in debt, a repayment cost of up to $28 million, and taxes of up to $1.4 million a year for a new elementary school.
The school board's resolution set the debt to occur only if the school district receives a best grant which exceeds $42 million in awarded best grant funds, which are not required to be repaid.
Plateau Valley School District 50's levy rose to 35.843 mills by 2025 after voters backed $40.8 million in bonds to match a $26.7 million state best grant.
Voters in Holyoke School District Rewun J decide November 3rd whether to accept a $37.5 million grant below the $42 million their 2024 bond approval required.
Voters in Plateau Valley School District 50 approved $40.8 million in bonds in 2023 to supply the local match for a $26,662.97-few grant from Colorado's Building Excellent Schools Today, BEST program, and the school district's property tax levy has since climbed from 13.644 mills in tax year 2022 to 35.843 mills in 2025.
Holyoke School District RE1J is asking voters November 3rd whether it may accept a $37,511,924.54 best grant below the $42 million threshold written into the bond measure they approved in 2024.
The PK-12 addition and replacement project in Colubrin, a Mesa County town, was budgeted at $67,457.80, with $40,794.108 from the district and $26,662.972 from the state, according to the list of recommended best projects for the 2023-24 fiscal year from the Colorado Department of Education, CDE.
The district opened the building in January, Grand Junction Television Station KJCT reported.
Bob Boswell, chairman and CEO of Laramie Energy, a Denver-based oil and gas producer in western Colorado's Pience Basin, said Oct. 6 on The Kim Monson Show that the Plateau Valley bonds will be repaid from local taxes.
These are farmers and ranchers out there, and they live on a commodity type of income that swings back and forth, Boswell said.
Boswell said Laramie Energy as an operator in the community, pays probably 70% of the taxes that will go towards repaying these bonds over a number of years.
He said the debt would be a burden on this community, the ranchers and farmers, and a deterrent for further development.
Kim Monson said she found a similar arrangement while reviewing local ballot questions for the 2026 Colorado Voter's Guide.
The state comes in and dangles money that doesn't have to be paid back as long as the community comes in, and pledges basically general obligation bonds for a new school, she said.
Across Colorado, a Kim Monson newsroom review of 255 local questions on the November 3 ballot found 158 asking for a tax increase extension, or new debt.
The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's 2023 Tabor Notice shows that ballot issue 4A on the November 7, 2023 ballot asked voters to authorize taxes of up to $3.06 million a year to provide local matching money required for the district to receive $26,662,972 in awarded best grant funds, which are not required to be repaid.
The measure passed 624 to 435, with 58.92% in favor, according to Mesa County's official results.
The district's total levy was 13.644 mills in tax year 2022, with no bond levy, according to the CDE's mill levy summary.
The district's bond, FAQ, had told voters the bond would add approximately 12 mills.
The bond levy was 12.479 mills in 2023, 16.399 mills in 2024, and 21.257 mills in 2025, according to the CDE's 2024-25 mill levy summary, and the Division of Property Taxation in the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
Over the same years, the district's assessed value fell from $216,075,390 to $136,138,330.
Voters in the Holyoke District approved ballot issue 5K on November 5, 2024, authorizing up to $14.84 million in debt, a repayment cost of up to $28 million, and taxes of up to $1.4 million a year for a new elementary school.
The school board's resolution set the debt to occur only if the school district receives a best grant which exceeds $42 million in awarded best grant funds, which are not required to be repaid.
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