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Senate Bill 135 Raises New Questions About TABOR Limits And Taxpayer Protections
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Senate Bill 135 Raises New Questions About TABOR Limits And Taxpayer Protections

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Claims that Senate Bill 26-135 could permanently eliminate the refund of overcollected revenue under Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment may at first blush sound hyperbolic, but they are not. Let me explain.  Beyond handing progressive legislators a blank check to cover up their own overspending, the new TABOR revenue limit creates a perverse incentive to limit both fiscal transparency and voter consent.  TABOR working just fine  TABOR’s existing formula limits annual growth of a portion of the state budget to a combination of population growth plus inflation.  This formula allows government to reasonably grow and accounts for factors not directly wit...
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Colorado Lawmakers Weigh $500 Million In Cuts As $1.5 Billion Deficit Looms
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Weigh $500 Million In Cuts As $1.5 Billion Deficit Looms

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee is working through a list Wednesday of about 150 suggestions to cut as much as $1.5 billion in general fund dollars out of next year’s budget. The largest on the list prepared by JBC staff is $198 million in cuts to the funding for the annual senior and disabled veterans homestead exemption. Funding for the homestead exemption has to come out of general fund dollars in the 2026-27 budget because the state does not have a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights surplus that would normally cover that cost. The other side of the issue is Gov. Jared Polis’ support for a proposal to allow Pinnacol Assurance to privatize, with the hopes that half of the funds Pinnacol would pay the state as a result ...
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Colorado’s School Funding TABOR Measure Hides a Long-Term Legislative Slush Fund
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s School Funding TABOR Measure Hides a Long-Term Legislative Slush Fund

Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The CPR article below details how SB26-135 (linked second below), the bill that, among other things, will put a question on the ballot allowing people to decide whether or not to let the state keep tax revenues above the TABOR cap, passed out of its first committee last week. I want to tee up an important thing to note about this bill by using a quote from one of the bill's sponsors Senator Kipp. “The Colorado Constitution requires voter approval to make any adjustments to TABOR, which is why lawmakers have to go to the ballot to advance the plan, according to Democratic Sen. Cathy Kipp, another main sponsor. ‘This bill does exactly what TABOR tells us to do,’ Kipp said. ‘We are going to the people of Colorado and saying, “...
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Colorado Ballot Measure Seeks To Lock Transportation Taxes Into Road Funding
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Ballot Measure Seeks To Lock Transportation Taxes Into Road Funding

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER – Colorado voters are one step closer to ensuring revenue intended for building and maintaining Colorado’s highways actually goes to fixing the roads.  A proposed ballot measure seeks to reinstate a prior funding mechanism, repealed by the legislature decades ago after the lawmaker it was named for retired. This time, however, the method would be enshrined in the state’s constitution, if passed. The secretary of state’s office has okayed Initiative 175 for signature gathering, and if it makes it onto the November ballot, Colorado’s roads and highways may finally begin to see the much-needed repairs that, according to critics, have been pushed aside to satisfy progressive leaders’ desire for things such as mass transit....
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Colorado Budget Gap Nears $1.5B As Revenue Forecast Slides
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Budget Gap Nears $1.5B As Revenue Forecast Slides

By: Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette The latest revenue forecasts from economists in both the governor’s office and the Colorado legislature show that the state’s budget predicament has worsened — by hundreds of millions of dollars more. That, in turn, means cuts programs and services in next year’s fiscal budget will go much deeper. The state’s fiscal predicament also means no refunds for Colorado residents. Economists with the Legislative Council downgraded the forecast for the 2026-27 fiscal year by another $643 million, bringing the total shortfall to nearly $1.5 billion. What’s driving the downgrade? General fund revenues — dollars that come from tax collections for individual and corporate income tax, and sales and use taxes — came in lower for fi...
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Colorado’s assault on families: TABOR, parental rights and the bills lawmakers killed
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s assault on families: TABOR, parental rights and the bills lawmakers killed

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado In the United States of America, we cherish our freedoms. We have the freedom to protect our families, to practice our faith, to educate our children, and to live in safe communities. Coloradans want to experience those freedoms in our state, too, not just as an ideal in our country. We want truth, justice, and the American way. The American way of limited government and keeping our own money is at risk with the constant attack against the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). Homeschool families' ability to educate their own children becomes increasingly difficult as the state of Colorado takes additional resources away from us. SB26-135, State Public K-12 Education Funding, wants to circumvent TABOR restrictions and proposes k...
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Colorado Senate Panel Advances Bill To Redirect TABOR Refunds
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Senate Panel Advances Bill To Redirect TABOR Refunds

By: Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–Couched as a state education funding effort, legislation to siphon off overcollected revenue that would otherwise be refunded to Colorado taxpayers passed out of a Democrat-controlled Senate committee on Thursday. Senate Bill 26-135, “State Public K-12 Education Funding,” refers a question to Colorado’s November ballot to increase K-12 education funding by 2% annually for the next ten years. According to the bill, the money is intended to go towards teacher pay increases and retention, lowering class sizes, and technical career programs. Along with raising education appropriations, the bill allows the state to keep and spend excess revenue collected above the limitations in the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). ...
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Lawmakers Attempt End Run Around TABOR With New Tax Bills
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Lawmakers Attempt End Run Around TABOR With New Tax Bills

By: Mike Rosen | Complete Colorado The governor and progressive Democrats that dominate the state legislature and every statewide office in Colorado have been masterful ― if not ethical and honest ― in devising devious schemes to circumvent the TABOR amendment in the Colorado Constitution.  That’s the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, passed by a 1992 voter-initiated ballot measure that bypassed the legislature. It limited government spending and barred the legislature from increasing taxes or imposing new ones without the consent of the voters. Democrats have always despised TABOR. Their favorite ploys have included misrepresenting taxes as “fees” and funding spending programs through tax credits. Because those credits reduce government revenues, they’re the equivalent of...
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Critics Warn Democrat Plan Would Eliminate TABOR Refunds For A Decade
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Critics Warn Democrat Plan Would Eliminate TABOR Refunds For A Decade

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado voters could decide this fall whether billions of dollars that would otherwise be returned as refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights should instead go to public schools under a ballot measure unveiled Thursday by Democrats. Supporters say the proposal would address chronic underfunding in K-12 education, while critics argue it takes money away from taxpayers and amounts to sidestepping the state’s constitutional spending limits. Supporters have insisted that schools are underfunded to the tune of billions of dollars, while one study says revenue and spending by schools have significantly grown in the last few years, with a noticeable shift toward non-instructional spending. Under the proposed ballot measure, the am...
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Democrats Push Plan to Eliminate TABOR Refunds For The Next 10 Years
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Democrats Push Plan to Eliminate TABOR Refunds For The Next 10 Years

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado voters could decide this fall whether billions of dollars that would otherwise be returned as refunds under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights should instead go to public schools under a ballot measure unveiled Thursday by Democrats. Supporters say the proposal would address chronic underfunding in K-12 education, while critics argue it takes money away from taxpayers and amounts to sidestepping the state’s constitutional spending limits. Supporters have insisted that schools are underfunded to the tune of billions of dollars, while one study says revenue and spending by schools have significantly grown in the last few years, with a noticeable shift toward non-instructional spending. Under the proposed ballot measure, the am...
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