The Colorado Sun reports that Colorado Democrats have abandoned two bills aimed at rolling back business tax breaks to fund a new family tax credit after Gov. Jared Polis threatened a veto. House Bills 1221 and 1222 had already cleared the House, but died Monday in the Senate Finance Committee at the request of their sponsors.
The bills would have raised hundreds of millions of dollars annually by limiting or ending certain business deductions and write-offs, then redirected that money into a refundable child tax credit for families earning up to $95,000. Polis, according to lawmakers in the article, wanted any rollback of business tax breaks paired with an income tax cut. Imagine that. A Democrat governor asking the Capitol tax-hikers to at least pretend taxpayers exist.
The Bullet Point Brief
- House Bills 1221 and 1222 were killed in the Senate Finance Committee after sponsors said Polis threatened a veto. The legislature discovered separation of powers right after the governor found the brake pedal.
- HB 1221 would have limited deductions related to CEO pay and reduced how long businesses could carry losses forward, raising an estimated $124 million annually. Because nothing says “economic strategy” like punishing businesses for not being government agencies.
- HB 1222 would have ended state write-offs for business equipment, machinery, research and development costs, and limited debt write-offs. Fiscal analysts said it could raise up to $329 million annually. Translation: tax the tools, tax the innovation, tax the risk, then hold a press conference about affordability.
- The money would have funded a refundable family tax credit of up to roughly $1,000 per child for families earning up to $95,000, even if they had no tax liability. That is not a tax cut. That is a spending program wearing a tax-credit mustache.
- Democrats were trying to replace Colorado’s paused Family Affordability Tax Credit, which was shut off after state revenues dropped due to Colorado’s link to the federal tax code and changes from H.R. 1. One smaller piece survived: taxing downloadable software under HB 1223, expected to raise more than $92 million annually and support a smaller credit of about $250 per child.
My Bottom Line
Stop it. Can the ruling Democrat elitists in the Colorado State Legislature just stop it for five blessed minutes? Enough with playing Robin Hood using someone else’s balance sheet. Enough with treating every business deduction like a secret vault full of yacht money. Enough with fueling your virtue signal on the backs of the people who buy equipment, hire workers, take risks, and keep communities breathing.
The wildest part is that Jared Polis, yes, Governor Gaslight, himself, somehow came out of this looking like the most fiscally cautious statewide elected official in Colorado. That is not exactly a Mount Rushmore moment for conservatism. It is more like finding a fire extinguisher in a clown car. Still, he was right to demand an income tax cut if lawmakers wanted to grab more from businesses. Credit where due, even when it causes mild political vertigo.
The Democratic argument is always dressed up as compassion. Kids. Families. Affordability. Fine words. But the mechanism is the same tired hustle: take more money from the productive economy, run it through Denver’s bureaucratic laundromat, skim off the politics, then announce you saved civilization. Meanwhile, the cost of doing business goes up, investment gets colder, and ordinary families get to pay for it through higher prices, fewer jobs, or both.
If it terrifies you that the closest thing to fiscal stewardship in statewide office came from Polis blinking at his own party’s tax appetite, good. It should. Shudder, then look at your wallet. Then maybe consider sending a few Republicans to the Capitol who understand that prosperity is not something you mug in the alley and redistribute at a podium.
Source: The Colorado Sun
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