Colorado protected school funding without touching TABOR refunds. Now it wants those too.
By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Last session, the Colorado General Assembly passed a bill asking voters to waive their TABOR refunds to fund education.
The ballot title calls it "without raising taxes." No rates change.
But it asks Coloradans to let the state keep money the constitution currently requires it to give back, and it comes one year after the legislature moved more than $200 million into a protected school account without touching anyone's refund at all.
The two moves address the same problem. They work very differently.
What the legislature did first
In 2025, tucked inside HB25-1320, the School Finance Act, a Senate Appropriations Committee amendment drafted by Sen. Kolker (D) and Sen. Kirkmeyer (R), created something...

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