Colorado Politics reports the state Title Board just approved eight ballot measures that would dump Colorado’s flat income tax and move us to graduated brackets. Translation: they found a way to tee up a tax hike for some folks, on a statewide ballot, with Denver as the backdrop and your wallet as the target.
A coalition called Protect Colorado’s Future now has to pick which version to push into petitions, and opponents say they’re appealing the titles.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The Title Board approved eight ballot measures aimed at replacing Colorado’s flat income tax with graduated brackets.
- The measures are backed by Protect Colorado’s Future and are intended to raise taxes on higher-income earners to fund K-12 education, child care, and health care.
- These measures would change state law and the state Constitution, including a partial repeal of TABOR (Colorado’s taxpayer bill of rights) language that mandates a flat statewide income tax.
- The Title Board ruled the 55% approval requirement in Amendment 71 does not apply because the measures remove constitutional language rather than add it.
- The next steps include an appeal hearing scheduled for Feb. 4 and, if they proceed, gathering at least 124,238 valid petition signatures across all 35 state Senate districts.
My Bottom Line
This would be an absolute disaster for Colorado and, yes, another nail in our affordability coffin. Families are already getting crushed by housing costs, insurance, fuel, groceries, and fees, and now the answer from the usual crowd is: let’s redesign the tax code so government can reach deeper into your pocket.
It punishes small businesses. A lot of Weld County job creators do not have a magic “corporate vault.” They have payroll, equipment payments, and a thin margin that disappears fast when the state decides to “just tweak” brackets.
And let’s call it what it is: the typical class warfare we have come to expect from democrats. I’m not interested in dividing Coloradans into “good taxpayers” and “bad taxpayers” based on a political story about who deserves what.
Here’s the part that never changes: The legislature does not have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. If you cannot balance priorities with the money already coming in, the problem is not the tax structure; it’s discipline.
Colorado doesn’t need a new tax scheme; it needs a spine.
Translated: stop trying to extract more money out of Coloradans and force government to legislate within its means, because that’s what grown-ups do.
Source: Colorado Politics
