Voters appear to be supporting a property tax increase for Adams County 27J School District at the polls.

Voters are being asked to approve an increase of eight mills to provide for school safety, retention of teachers. The district includes Brighton, Thornton and Commerce City.

As of 1:30 p.m. Nov. 9, the district received 19,073 yes votes compared to 14,923 no votes.

The district made a strong push to convince voters to approve the tax increase. In Commerce City, the city council voted to lower the municipal tax rate to support the school district. Voters have not approved a mill levy override for the school district since 2000.

The tax increase is expected to cost is less than $1 a day on a house with an assessed value of $500,000. If voters turn down the override, the district said it would ahve cut middle- and high-school sports programs, though no specifics are available. Extracurricular programs across the district would also be cut, as would school bus services. The district also said class sizes could increase next year.

Board member Tom Green said he thinks the district's message sunk in.

"27J has just been woefully underfunded for 20 years," Green said. "Other schools around us are spending hundreds, even thousand per student but we've been locked in at $41 per student for more than 20 years. I think that fact resonated, plus I think the community supports our teachers and wants to see our career technical schools fully staffed. We just want to give our kids a good future."