The El Paso County commissioners will have nothing to do with a proposal to create the nation’s first universal health care system.

All five members voted at Tuesday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting in favor of a resolution to declare themselves against constitutional Amendment 69, which made the Nov. 8 ballot.

“This will decimate the state of Colorado,” District 5 Commissioner Peggy Littleton said. “This is a bad deal. We’ve got to stand up and say no.”

“I’m going to be very strongly opposed to this,” said District 1 Commissioner and U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn.

Dennis Hisey (District 4), Mark Waller (District 2) and Chairwoman Sallie Clark (District 3) each followed suit with strong comments against the program known as ColoradoCare.

The biggest concern for the board is the $25 billion annual price tag ColoradoCare would carry if passed by voters. That money would come from an additional 10 percent income tax and would almost double the state budget. Gov. John Hickenlooper passed a $25.8 billion budget bill in early May.

Clark said the commissioners’ opposition to Amendment 69 is partly because the county would have to pay $28 million over the first two years of ColoradoCare to cover its own employee health care costs.

Hisey said there are a “litany of other reasons” to oppose Amendment 69.

A board would be formed to make decisions on coverage, cost and other decisions surrounding health care, which would eliminate any control the consumer might have, he said.

“This 21-person board will simply tell us, ‘This is what you get, and this is what it will cost,’ ” Hisey said.

Hannah Parsons, with the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance, was the only other person to comment before the board passed the resolution.

Parsons said the Alliance “strongly” opposes Amendment 69.

“We don’t just want it to fail,” Parsons said. “We want it to fail miserably.”

While the BOCC discussed its opposition, backers of Amendment 69 gathered in Denver on Tuesday to counter claims that the universal health care system would bankrupt the state.

The Colorado Health Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank, found that while ColoradoCare would come close to breaking even in the first year, every year after that the rising costs of health care would mean the system would be unable to fund itself without increasing the proposed payroll taxes. The estimated shortfall in 2028 would be $7.8 billion.

Ivan Miller, a doctor from Boulder and executive director of the ColoradoCare campaign, said that analysis was flawed.

Miller said a report showing that ColoradoCare could not meet its financial obligations assumed that federal matching dollars for Medicaid would be withdrawn. According to his analysis, if federal matching dollars remain the same, ColoradoCare would save $2.7 billion in the next nine years.

Former state Sen. Jeanne Nicholson and Rep. Jonathan Singer joined Miller in front of the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in Denver on Tuesday morning to highlight what they called the viability and constitutionality of Amendment 69.

“We are confident we will have the funds that we need in order to provide access to excellent health care for every Coloradan and at the same time save tremendous amounts of money in the first year and in ongoing years,” Nicholson said. “We are sure that the money will be there. In fact, when you compare what we will save over time, compared to our current for-profit industry system, it’s remarkable how much better we can be.”

Michele Lueke, president and CEO of CHI, stood by the decision to run the analysis assuming the state loses millions in Medicaid-matching funds.

“It is worth noting that while Amendment 69 calls for a full transfer of Medicaid funding to the state, the federal government is not required to follow state amendments,” Lueke said. “Our policy experts advise that only some Medicaid funds will be available to finance ColoradoCare.”

Colorado Sen. Irene Aguilar, right, who is a physician at Denver Health, helps deliver more than 156,000 signatures to put a health care question on the 2016 ballot, outside the offices of the Colorado Secretary of State, in Denver. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)