I feel the need to clarify a few of statements.  Home ownership rate in Denver is 62.9% so the majority of residents in Denver do actually pay their property taxes directly.  Renters are not dumb, they usually can't afford the downpayment, are not ready to commit to homeownership tro straight up can't afford it.  It's a lot easier to afford $1000 a month in rent than it is to come up with the downpayment required to buy a property.  

Colorado and Denver have a good system that allows us to vote on these major spending initiatives and decide for ourselves what is best for the City.  If you follow many of the real estate, transportation and other articles on the Denver post you'll find a long list of people complaining about traffic, lack of road maintenance, insufficient bicycle infrastructure and most of all too many new residents causing infrastructure to be overwhelmed.  This initiatives asked Denver residents if they want to spend the money to upgrade much needed infrastructure.