Sticky bud, green energy get nod from Colorado ski-country voters

Things just got a whole lot greener in Colorado’s high country.

Voters in Breckenridge overwhelmingly backed the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia Tuesday, while in the counties surrounding Vail and Aspen, voters approved special-improvement districts for green-energy projects on homes and businesses.

sticky bud

The Breck vote (71 percent favored the measure) was largely symbolic since possession of up to an ounce of pot by people 21 and older is still illegal under state law (unless they have a medical marijuana card), but Breckenridge Police Chief Rick Holman told the Summit Daily News his department doesn’t spend a lot of time busting people with small amounts of weed anyway.

In Eagle County – home to Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas — voters by a 53 to 47 percent margin approved a program that would allow homeowners to make energy-efficiency improvement by borrowing against a special assessment on their property taxes that would then stay with the home even if it’s sold.

A similar program won approval by a much wider margin in the even more liberal environs of Pitkin County, home to the Aspen ski areas. Voters there approved the measure by a 73 to 27-percent margin. Both programs will likely be modeled after a Boulder County program in place for more than a year.

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