Montana Looks To Colorado’s Flat Tax Legacy As Colorado Debates Progressive Alternative
By Nash Herman | Complete Colorado
While Montana is poised to learn from the flat tax success stories of Colorado and other Western states, the push for a progressive income tax in Colorado threatens the very policies that made the state successful in the first place.
Some history
Colorado and Montana both implemented progressive individual income taxes in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
However, Colorado was one of the first states to join the “flat tax revolution” when it implemented a single flat rate of 5 percent for all incomes in 1987.
Then, through rate cuts at the turn of the century and Independence Institute-led Propositions 116 and 121 in 2020 and 2022, Colorado lowere...