Colorado certifies light ballot: Two statewide measures on TABOR refunds and high-earner deductions

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado

DENVER — Colorado voters will be getting a break from a long list of statewide questions this November, after Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced she had certified the 2025 ballot with only two measures going in front of all voters in the state.

Voters will however still have their fair share of things to vote on closer to home as many city council and school board seats are up for grabs, as well as new local tax asks and extensions of existing taxes around the state.

This year is an odd year election, meaning ballot measures are, for the most part, limited under state law to fiscal issues related to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

The two measures that will appear were both referred by the legislature this Spring out of House Bill 25-1274, and Senate Bill 25-214.

Proposition LL will ask voters to “de-TABOR” excess revenue received from the previous Proposition FF tax hike on Coloradans with incomes over $300,000. The 2022 voter-approved measure for the Healthy School Meals For All program pays for public schools to offer fully subsidized breakfast and lunch to students in kindergarten through 12^th grade.

However, the program is going broke, with the number of students eating school meals skyrocketing when parents who had been paying learned they no longer had to foot the bill.

It was estimated it would cost no more than $100 million a year, but in its first year, it was in the red by more than $60 million.

Proposition LL was referred to help fix the fiscal mess by allowing the state to keep and spend all the excess revenue collected from the first measure, which otherwise would be refunded back to taxpayers.

The second measure on the ballot is Proposition MM, which once again hikes taxes on those making more than $300,000 (roughly 5 percent of Colorado filers) by lowering their allowable income tax deductions from $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers down to $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for joint filers, thus increasing their taxable income. It is expected to raise about $95 million more a year.

An amendment to MM was also created during the recent special session to also help subsidize food stamps in Colorado.  Senate Bill 25B-003 allows the state to spend all revenue collected over and above what is needed to fund the “free” school lunch program on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which supplement low-income families’ grocery costs, and which are expected to decrease because of new work requirements put in place by the Trump administration.

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