Colorado’s affordability is already hanging by a thread, and now here comes another bright idea from the Denver/Boulder Bubble: blow up the flat income tax. The Denver Gazette lays out how a coalition just got eight ballot measures approved by the state title board to move Colorado toward graduated income tax brackets.
This all happened at the state Capitol process level, where the title board signed off on multiple versions that would replace the flat tax with tiers and use the higher rates to fund things like K-12 education, child care, and health care.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The Initiative Title Setting Review Board approved eight proposed ballot measures to shift Colorado from a flat income tax to graduated brackets.
- The coalition, Protect Colorado’s Future, now has to choose which measure to move into the petition phase.
- The proposals aim to raise taxes on higher-income earners to fund K-12 education, child care, health care, and in some versions early childhood education.
- The measures would change state law and the state Constitution, including removing some TABOR flat-tax language.
- Opponents plan to appeal the title board decision, with a hearing scheduled for Feb. 4.
My Bottom Line
This would be an absolute disaster for Colorado, and yes, it is yet another nail in our affordability coffin. When families are already doing math at the grocery store, the masterminds in the Capitol want to do more math on your paycheck.
Let’s not pretend this is “just the rich.” It punishes small business, because a whole lot of “higher income” in this state is a small shop owner having a good year and trying to keep staff, equipment, and the lights on. In the Denver/Boulder Bubble, payroll is apparently optional.
Here’s the part they skip: The legislature does not have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. If you cannot prioritize with the money you already take, you have not earned a dime more. I’m old-fashioned: I like results.
This is the typical class warfare we have come to expect from the Marxist left in our once great state.
If your plan only works when you raise taxes, your plan sucks.
So yes, turn back every one of their efforts to extract more money out of Coloradans and force them to legislate within their means. Want trust from voters? Show discipline first, prove outcomes, and stop treating taxpayers like an ATM with feelings.
Source: Denver Gazette
