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Signature Gathering Intensifies As Colorado Ballot Battles Take Shape
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Signature Gathering Intensifies As Colorado Ballot Battles Take Shape

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER– A large-scale signature gathering effort is underway in Colorado as proponents rush to get numerous citizen-initiated ballot measures qualified for the November statewide election, with issues ranging from from a right to hunt and fish to capping the stat income tax rate. The conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado, for example, is hip-deep in the effort, with two measures already on the ballot and at least three others are in the signature gathering phase. Already on the ballot is “Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes,” a statutory change that reinstates certain penalties related to fentanyl that the Democrat-controlled legislature has weakened or removed over the years. A second measure, “Law Enforcement Reporting Requ...
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Colorado Marijuana Lawsuit Claims State Inflated Taxes Through Market Distortions
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Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Colorado Marijuana Lawsuit Claims State Inflated Taxes Through Market Distortions

By Christopher Osher | Colorado Politics Plaintiff says state owes over $100 million in refunds This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. The regulators of Colorado’s first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana market have allowed so many sham transactions in the industry to proliferate that honest cultivators and manufacturers shoulder an unfair excise tax burden, claims a lawsuit filed on Thursday that seeks class-action status. The lawsuit, filed by a large-scale marijuana cultivator in the state, claims the state owes millions of dollars in tax refunds. It alleges failures in enforcement by the Marijuana Enforcement Division have allowed “distortions” in how the state calculates the average market rate (AMR) for unprocessed marijuana tha...
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Colorado Lawmakers Close 2026 Session With Greater Government Control And Higher Fiscal Risk
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Close 2026 Session With Greater Government Control And Higher Fiscal Risk

By Jake Fogleman | Complete Colorado The Colorado legislature officially adjourned May 13, after weighing more than 600 bills over the course of 120 days. Lawmakers entered the 2026 legislative session facing a set of familiar problems: another billion-dollar budget deficit, rising voter frustration over affordability, and growing concerns about Colorado’s economic competitiveness and business climate. Yet despite those warning signs, the Democrat-dominated legislature largely doubled down on the same governing philosophy that has increasingly defined the Capitol in recent years—more fees, more special interest tax benefits at the expense of other taxpayers, and more attempts to carve revenue streams out from under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). To be sure, not...
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Colorado Ballot Measure Asks Voters To Forfeit Up To $7000 Per Taxpayer In TABOR Refunds
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The Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Ballot Measure Asks Voters To Forfeit Up To $7000 Per Taxpayer In TABOR Refunds

By Marissa Ventrelli | The Gazette A Democratic‑backed proposal to direct money to K‑12 schools using Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights dollars is headed to the ballot, setting up a major debate over taxpayer refunds and long‑term education funding. If voters approve it, the average Coloradan would forfeit more than $7,000 in TABOR refunds over the next decade. Senate Bill 135 includes a provision to increase the TABOR cap by the amount the state spends on K-12 education, which currently sits at about $4.5 billion per year. Under the proposal, any funding beyond that would be allocated to services for students with disabilities and increased contractor hours. “We have worked hard to better the quality of education in Colorado and have made great strides in m...
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Colorado Tax Data Raises Questions About Calls For Higher Taxes On Wealthy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, State

Colorado Tax Data Raises Questions About Calls For Higher Taxes On Wealthy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado’s “rich” are already paying a lot (A LOT) Tax Day, both the day when tax returns are due and the day at which you have worked enough to pay your taxes (and start working for yourself) recently passed. Around that date I saw something online giving a breakdown of Federal tax receipts vs. income group and it got me thinking about Colorado’s tax receipts vs. income. After doing some digging I have some data to share, and, as the top line here suggests, the “rich” in Colorado are already paying quite a bit. Certainly a giant percent of state revenue compared to how many filers there are. As I’ll show below, if you look at the percentage of total tax receipts vs. the percentage of taxpayers ...
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Colorado Senate Bill 135 Trades TABOR Refunds for Limited School Funding
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Senate Bill 135 Trades TABOR Refunds for Limited School Funding

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Colorado state senators recently engaged in more debate over Senate Bill 135, ultimately passing the measure and sending it over the House for consideration.     The bill sends a ballot measure to voters this November, exchanging billions of dollars in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds for a relatively small increase in education funding.  The Senate debate was enlightening in showing which amendments the bill sponsors supported and more importantly, those they did not.  For the kids (but not too much) One might think that the logical mechanism of a bill titled “State Public K-12 Education Funding” would be to increase revenues and direct the new money to C...
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Concerns Mount Over Transparency And Authority In State Capitol
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Commentary, State

Concerns Mount Over Transparency And Authority In State Capitol

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, The Denver Gazette The great 19th-century historian Lord Acton said it best: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Acton was building on the teachings of his mentor, Homer Simpson, who put it more plainly: “The more power you have, the more you can mess things up. Woo-hoo!” And many in Colorado’s political elite have studied under the original oracle of power, Eric Cartman: “Respect my authoritah!” If there were a motto for the progressive machine that now rules Colorado, it would be simple: “Because we f***ing can, that’s why.” Ethics don’t matter. Consistency doesn’t matter. Respecting the will of the people, or even the institution of democracy itself, doesn’t matter. Raw political power to im...
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Colorado Democrats Push Plan To Redirect TABOR Refunds To State Spending
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Push Plan To Redirect TABOR Refunds To State Spending

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette A nonpartisan analysis of a proposed ballot measure that seeks to increase public education spending by tapping Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds shows that about 75% of what would otherwise go to Colorado residents wouldn’t actually go to K-12 schools. Instead, those dollars would go into the state’s general fund pot — to be used by lawmakers for whatever purposes they choose. The analysis said that arrangement could start as soon as the 2028-29 fiscal year. What that means, according to the analysis, is that every taxpayer would lose $7,381 in TABOR refunds between the 2026-27 and 2036-37 fiscal years. At its core, TABOR requires a public vote in order to raise taxes. It also limits revenue growth. Notably, it r...
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$46.8 Billion Colorado Budget Reflects Rising Medicaid Costs and Hard Choices
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The Gazette, Approved, State

$46.8 Billion Colorado Budget Reflects Rising Medicaid Costs and Hard Choices

By Marianne Goodland | The Gazette The six-member panel of legislators in charge of crafting the state budget has now turned over its plan to the Colorado legislature, proposing to spend $1.5 billion more for the Medicaid program. The increase is driven by Medicaid costs, which forced the Joint Budget Committee to make cuts elsewhere. All told, House Bill 26-1410 proposes a state budget of $46.8 billion, with $17.3 billion coming from general funds, the revenue largely from corporate and individual income taxes, as well as from sales and use taxes. Notably, that general fund amount is 1.4% higher than the $17.1 billion in the 2025-26 budget. The 2025-26 budget, as approved by lawmakers a year ago, stood at $43.9 billion. It has changed significantly since...
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Colorado Progressives Blame TABOR For $1.5B Budget Gap While Expanding Costly Tax Credits
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Progressives Blame TABOR For $1.5B Budget Gap While Expanding Costly Tax Credits

By Nash Herman | Commentary, Complete Colorado Karl Marx, co-author of The Communist Manifesto, once wrote “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.” We’re watching a version of this play out at the Colorado State Capitol. Like thousands of enlightened technocrats who came before them, Colorado’s progressive legislators believe that they are uniquely endowed to once and for all fix structural flaws in the state’s budget and finally bring “fairness” and “equality” to Colorado.  If they could only eliminate the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR, heavily tax the rich, and preserve their preferred special interest tax breaks, then Colorado would have heaven on Earth.  Really, this farcical display will only serve to destroy Co...
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