The Denver Gazette editorial board warns that Colorado voters may soon face Initiative 195, a proposal to drag the state away from its simple flat income tax and back into a graduated tax system the state abandoned decades ago. The editorial says the measure would move Colorado from its current 4.4% flat income tax to brackets running from 3.7% to 8.4%, and cites nonpartisan legislative analysis estimating it would raise roughly $2 billion to $2.7 billion per year in new state revenue.
That is not “fairness.” That is a $2 billion-plus raid with a choir robe on. Colorado is not broke. Colorado government is bloated, hungry, and once again eyeing the taxpayer’s wallet like it found loose ribs at a barbecue. Initiative 195 is not reform. It is a museum-piece class-warfare machine built for politicians who think every dollar earned in Colorado belongs to Denver unless taxpayers prove otherwise.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Initiative 195 would replace Colorado’s flat income tax with a graduated tax scheme that nearly doubles the top rate. That is not modernization. That is the tax code equivalent of dragging a rotary phone out of the attic and calling it innovation.
- The Gazette says legislative analysis estimates the measure would grab another $2 billion to $2.7 billion a year from Coloradans. Funny how “the rich will pay” always turns into “everybody hold still while government gets a bigger straw.”
- Proponents want voters to believe this only hits some cartoon millionaire tying a sweater around his neck in Aspen. In the real world, small businesses file through personal income taxes, capital moves, employers make decisions, and families feel the fallout.
- The editorial says extra revenue above the current flat-tax baseline would be exempt from the TABOR cap. Translation: not only do they want more money, they want to move it outside the taxpayer-control fence before anyone notices the gate is missing.
- Initiative 232 would counter this mess by keeping the income tax capped at 4.4%, while still allowing future reductions. That is the sane lane: keep it simple, keep it predictable, and keep Denver’s hands out of the milkshake.
My Bottom Line
Colorado’s flat tax is simple, fair, and competitive. Everyone pays the same rate. The more you earn, the more you pay. That is not hard unless your political project requires turning math into resentment.
The graduated-tax crowd hates simplicity because simplicity exposes the bill. Complexity is where the grift lives. Add brackets, add carveouts, add moral language, add “for the children,” add a few spreadsheets, and suddenly a massive tax hike gets sold as compassion.
Do not buy it. This is fiscal laziness dressed up as virtue. Before Colorado politicians demand another $2 billion-plus from families, workers, retirees, and small businesses, they can try budgeting like adults for once. Government should not get to grow, complain it is starving, dodge TABOR, and then call taxpayers selfish for noticing.
November is a chance to stop this before the accountants, lawyers, lobbyists, and bureaucrats get a full-employment act disguised as tax reform. Colorado does not need a bigger tax appetite. It needs a shorter leash.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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