Tracking what's destroying Colorado
A curated collection of bills, news, and resources about Colorado politics and policy
A curated collection of bills, news, and resources about Colorado politics and policy
In a unanimous vote, the Colorado Title Board on December 3, 2025, greenlit Ballot Measure No. 181 for the 2026 ballot, proposing to scrap the state's flat 4.41% income tax for a graduated system with a dozen brackets starting in 2027. Backed by the left-leaning Bell Policy Center and allies like the Colorado Fiscal Institute, the overhaul promises minor cuts (a few hundred dollars yearly) for earners under $500,000 while slamming high-income individuals and businesses—especially those over $10 million—with hikes of hundreds of thousands annually. A revised fiscal estimate from the Legislative Council staff ballooned the projected revenue grab from $2.3 billion to a whopping $4.1 billion yearly, earmarked for teacher raises, plugging Medicaid shortfalls amid federal cuts, and funding childcare/workforce programs, with an audit mandate for excess funds. Proponents hail it as a fix for a $4.1 billion K-12 funding gap and looming $1-2 billion Medicaid hits, but critics like Advance Colorado vow appeals by December 17, blasting it as a TABOR-busting violation of the single-subject rule that mixes tax hikes with spending schemes, risking voter confusion and economic flight.
Buckle up, Colorado freedom fighters—this Title Board rubber-stamp on Ballot No. 181 is the left's latest love letter to big government, a $4.1 billion-per-year tax torpedo disguised as "fairness" that's really just a sledgehammer to TABOR and the wallets of anyone daring to succeed in the Rockies. Fresh off rejecting two earlier versions for shredding the state constitution's single-subject mandate and that sacred "uniform tax rate" clause from '92, the Dem darlings at the board waved through this Frankenstein fix—dozens of brackets to coddle low earners with chump-change cuts while eviscerating entrepreneurs and job creators over $500K. We're talking six-figure bloodbaths for $10M+ earners and businesses that fuel our tech boom, energy independence, and tourism goldmine, all funneled into a slush fund for teacher pet projects, Medicaid black holes (now gobbling 36% of the general fund), and virtue-signaling childcare giveaways.
Bell Policy Center's Chris deGruy Kennedy shrugs off the "wild swing" from $2.3B to $4.1B like it's a rounding error—"the state needs more," he whines—blithely ignoring the $4.1B K-12 "gap" that's code for endless spending without accountability, or the $12B federal Medicaid gut-punch over a decade that's Washington's mess, not ours to bail out with homegrown hikes. This isn't equity; it's envy on steroids, a sequel to the graduated grift that's gutted California's golden economy and chased innovators to Texas. Advance Colorado's got it right—appeal this constitutional clownery by December 17, because mixing tax terror with pet pork violates TABOR's core promise: No sneaky schemes to balloon the beast without voter say-so.
Jared Polis and his progressive posse love this because it lets them play Robin Hood with your neighbor's cash, but real Coloradans know better: Punish success, and watch the wealth exodus accelerate—families and firms fleeing to Wyoming's tax-free haven faster than you can say "brain drain." The middle class? You'll foot the bill through higher costs, fewer jobs, and a bloated bureaucracy that can't even audit its own excesses without a fig leaf. Republicans, this is our Alamo: Torch it at the ballot in '26, defend TABOR like the liberty lifeline it is, and fight for flat taxes, spending caps, and school choice that actually lifts kids without looting paychecks. Let's keep Colorado the land of rugged individualism, not redistribute-to-ruin.