While most of the 2025 election attention turned to the coasts — California’s redistricting proposal and the New York City mayoral race — there were a few food- and ag-focused items on more central U.S. ballots. And all four items passed, most with strong margins.
Coloradans Fund Universal School Food
Just over a third (35.6%) of registered voters turned out in Colorado for the off-year 2025 election. Both of Colorado’s statewide ballot issues that dealt with funding the state’s universal free meals for public school students — Propositions LL and MM — were approved by voters. Both propositions, in different ways, aimed to help fund the state’s Healthy School Meals for All program and its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Prop LL asked voters if it could keep $12.43 million in excess tax money it previously collected from high-income taxpayers and put it into the HSMA program and SNAP. This question was put to voters because of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which requires the state to return excess tax revenue to the taxpayers unless voters allow the state to keep it.
According to the Colorado secretary of state’s office, Prop LL passed 64.7% to 35.3%, a difference of roughly 425,000 votes.
Prop MM passed with a slightly narrower margin — 58.1% for and 41.9% against, representing a difference of about 236,000 votes — according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. Prop MM asked to raise up to $95 million annually by reducing the itemized or standard state income tax deductions high-income earners can claim. Currently, those deductions stand at $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. With the passage of Prop MM, these will drop to $1,000 and $2,000, respectively.
The Colorado secretary of state’s office estimates that Coloradans with a federal taxable income of $300,000 or more will see their income taxes increase by an average of $486 as a result of the passage of Prop MM.
Texans Opt for Untaxed Feed and Money for Water
Just under 16% of Texas voters turned out to voice their desires on two different amendments to the state constitution. Proposition 4 asked voters if the state could ear-mark up to $1 billion in its sales and use taxes for water infrastructure, and Prop 5 asked voters to not count animal feed stored for retail sale among property taxes. Both passed with noteworthy margins.
Prop 4 passed with a more than 40 percentage-point spread at 70.4% in favor and 29.6% opposed, a difference of about 1.2 million votes, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office.
The state constitutional amendment proposed to earmark the first $1 billion dollars after $46.5 billion is collected via sales and use taxes each fiscal year for the Texas Water Fund. This fund, administered by the Texas Water Development Board, goes to fund other water-related projects and initiatives throughout the state.
The amendment also requires that no less than 50% of the money that goes into the Texas Water Fund as a result of this measure must go to the New Water Supply for Texas Fund and/or the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas. Together, these two funds focus on increasing water supplies in the state. This can be through efforts like reservoir building, recapture and reuse projects, acquiring water or water rights from nearby states, or desalination efforts.
Prop 5 passed with 63.6% voting in favor and 36.4% voting against. With the passage of this amendment, “animal feed held by the owner of the property for sale at retail” will no longer be subject to property tax. According to Texas state Rep. Cody Harris, R-District 8, who authored the bill, the amendment will bring added consistency to how the state handles animal feed as it relates to taxes.
Across the state, only 15.7% of eligible Texas voters cast their vote on this issue. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, voter turnout for this amendment was higher in small, rural counties.
