Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s first major ballot initiatives turned out to be a mixed bag.

On the one hand, the proposed expansion of the Downtown Development Authority as a means of revitalizing a small section of downtown received support from 81% of voters.

The expansion of the authority, known as Ballot Issue 6A, is expected to generate $570 million, which officials said they would invest in development and improvement projects over the next decade for Denver’s struggling urban center.

On the other hand, voters were less enthusiastic about Johnston’s campaign to generate $100 million annually to fund his local affordable housing programs.

Despite having no organized opposition and more than $2.4 million in support from Affordable Denver, 51.58% of voters said “no” to Ballot Issue 2R, according to the unofficial tally on Friday.

More significantly, the proposal is directly tied to one of Johnston’s campaign promises. During his campaign for mayor last year, Johnston offered what he described as an ambitious plan to create more than “25,000 permanently affordable units within 8 years.” He envisioned those units going to teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. At the time, Johnston said it would $72 million a year to construct 25,000 homes. 

His funding proposal this year — which would have raised the city’s sales tax rate by 0.5 points — would have cost roughly $30 million more than his campaign pitch. 

Johnston’s administration also sees affordable housing as key to curbing the city’s homelessness crisis.  

Political observers and others offered two explanations why, assuming the latest tally holds, the measure failed: the proposal’s clear lack of spending guardrails and it’s “frustratingly vague” approach to rollout.

Even members of City Council said they struggled to wrap their heads around it.

Denver City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer expressed worries back in August when the bill was first introduced, suggesting it had been pushed through the process far too quickly and that council should not be doing “committee work.”

“We shouldn’t have had 12 amendments tonight,” Sawyer said. “We should have had the time to bring this back to committee to have an additional conversation or two so we could hammer out these details before this came to the floor.”

Sawyer said she was uncomfortable with the rushed nature of the bill and that it was “not ready to go to the voters.”

“Denver voters weren’t quite ready for this ballot measure after the considerable amount of money and successful effort that Mayor Johnston put forth in addressing homelessness and the migrant influx,” said Michael Dino, a political expert who served as campaign manager for former Mayor Wellington Webb. “I think Denver voters will be more receptive to a future affordable housing ballot proposal that has a clearer implementation plan.”

Jim Carpenter, a Democratic consultant who served as chief of staff to Gov. Bill Ritter and state director for U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, said before Tuesday’s results he was watching how Denver voters decide on the funding proposals.   

“One theme that could emerge, if they fail, is that voters don’t want to spend more money right now,” Carpenter said. “If Denver defeats a tax and school funding issues don’t pass, that could signal some fiscal moderation. We’ll just have to see.”

Others cited the plan’s ambiguity, as well as worries about the impact of sales tax increases on low- and middle-income residents.

“I know that many essentials like groceries (but not prepared foods or drinks) and very basic hygiene goods are not taxed, but I don’t think now is the right time to raise sales taxes further when goods are already so unaffordable,” Reddit user Mindless-Challenge62 said in one post.

Others, like reddit member washegonorado, suggested the numbers don’t add up.

“How does the city build housing units for $23,000 each? Besides traveling back in time to 1960 to build them,” the user posted in a Denver reddit channel. “That’s the only way you can build 44k units with the $1 billion the city projects will be generated from the tax. Read the bill itself. There’s no commitment or anything beyond vagaries for how the money will be spent.”

The user said the money could go toward “demand side subsidy,” which would “just drive up the prices for homes for everyone else.”

Johnston’s office has taken a wait-and-see approach, pointing out that “the race still hasn’t been called yet.”

“This year, we saw record-high Election Day turnout and more than 90,000 votes have yet to be counted, many of which come from young people and working Denverites who feel the crunch of high housing costs the most but vote later,” Jordan Fuja, the spokesperson for Johnston’s office, said in a statement on Thursday. “We believe there is a narrow path forward and will continue to watch the results come in.”