case studies

The City of Littleton was facing a backlog of long overdue infrastructure projects and didn’t have the financial resources to fund them. In fact, their dedicated Capital Projects Fund was set to be depleted by 2025. We were hired to create a communication strategy to educate citizens about the issues and determine a path forward. 

We started with 37% awareness among likely voters, which is about where things often begin. We developed a five-month plan for successfully passing a ballot question for a .75% sales tax rate increase to solve the issue – which represents the first sales tax increase in 50 years. Ballot issue 3A passed with 59% support.

One year later we helped pass a new 5% lodging tax with 64% support that will generate about $1 million annually for city-wide public arts and cultural facilities and programs.

Grand County EMS called us as they faced rising costs and limited revenue, negatively impacting their ability to efficiently respond to increased demand for emergency services. Working closely with the County Commissioners of a fiscally-conservative region, their goal was to put a 1.75 mill property tax increase on the ballot in a largely conservative county. Our strategic messaging and community outreach plan helped the measure succeed with over 51% of the vote – and that’s with two additional property tax increases on the same ballot.