By Alicia Caldwell
The deep-pocketed interests who are challenging the Colorado Secretary of State’s office determination that the graduated income tax measure met requirements to get on the November ballot are engaged in a desperate effort to keep the popular measure from voters.
“More than 130,000 Coloradans signed this petition because they’re tired of paying the same tax rate as millionaires. The same lobbying firm representing tobacco companies and private prison operators is now trying to silence those voters, but we intend to defend every one of them,” said Chris deGruy Kennedy, President & CEO of the Bell Policy Center and co-chair of Protect Colorado’s Future, the coalition behind Amendment 87, the graduated income tax measure.
“We are confident this challenge will be quickly dismissed,” he said. “Amendment 87 simply asks the wealthiest 3 percent and giant corporations to pay their fair share. But rather than make their case to the public, lawyers for the rich and powerful are trying to kill it in a courtroom. It’s no surprise that they’re trying to take this choice away from voters, but we won’t let them win.”
If passed, Amendment 87 will replace Colorado’s flat income tax system with a graduated tax structure that:
- cuts taxes for 97 percent of Colorado taxpayers, including small businesses, seniors, and veterans
- raises more than $2 billion strictly for K-12 education, healthcare, and childcare by asking the wealthiest Coloradans and largest corporations to finally pay their fair share
- increases taxes only on the wealthiest 3 percent of individuals and largest 5 percent of corporations making more than $500,000 annually
requires graduated income tax revenues to be spent exclusively on K-12 education, healthcare, and childcare mandates annual, independent public audits to ensure funds are spent as required
Under current law, a teacher earning $50,000 a year pays the same tax rate as a millionaire or a large corporation. That’s because Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), adopted by voters in 1992, requires the state to tax all income at a single flat rate and caps annual state revenue growth, forcing budget cuts even in years when the state’s economy grows.
That flat-rate requirement, combined with two state income tax cuts over the last six years that primarily benefited wealthy individuals and large corporations, has helped drive a deepening fiscal crisis. Colorado has cut approximately $2 billion from its state budget over the past two years, driven by federal spending cuts under H.R.1 and by TABOR’s revenue restrictions, with education funding, Medicaid, and other services taking the hit.
Amendment 87 would fix this broken tax system by asking households and corporations earning more than $500,000 a year to pay their fair share, while cutting taxes for everyone else.
The new tax rates are marginal rates, and those rates apply to Colorado taxable income for individuals and corporate net income, also known as profit, for corporations (as opposed to gross business income).
About the PCF Coalition
Protect Colorado’s Future is a coalition of more than 100 organizations, including groups focused on education, healthcare, child care, food security, older adults, the environment, rural communities, and local government. Learn more at protectcoloradosfuture.com.
Protect Colorado’s Future Steering Committee:
Bell Policy Center
Colorado Center on Law and Policy
Colorado Fiscal Institute
Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition
Great Education Colorado
New Era Colorado
Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR)
Colorado Consumer Health Initiative
Colorado Cross Disability Coalition
Colorado PTA
Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions
Conservation Colorado
Counties & Commissioners Acting Together
Growing Our Future coalition
Hunger Free Colorado
Progress Now Colorado
Provecho Collective
Save the Children Action Network – Colorado
Western Colorado Alliance
Alicia Caldwell is Communications Director with the Bell Policy Center.