Review of Colorado’s Property Taxes and Model Policy
Over the last few years, Colorado’s property tax system has been the subject of considerable debate and efforts toward reform. Rapidly rising residential property values and a structure that gave relief to residential owners, but not commercial property owners, pushed the issue to the fore of the state’s fiscal discussion.
Fees, Enterprises, and Colorado
This issue paper discusses how Colorado has created loopholes, such as fees and enterprises, to bypass the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).
Denver sales tax measures: Too many, too much
The price tag to city residents and shoppers is just too high, threatening to make an already costly city among the most expensive in the country.
Colorado’s proposed pension reform is a missed opportunity
In November of 2016, Colorado’s Public Employees Retirement Association Board (PERA) realized it had a problem. Not only did the state’s public pension system have a current unfunded liability of $50 billion, but overly-optimistic expected returns and overly-pessimistic mortality tables would leave the plan at less than 20 percent funded in a couple of decades […]
PERA’s problems demand meaningful reform
Change is coming. The citizens of Colorado can choose to be its architects rather than its victims.
An opportunity for lawmakers to fix Colorado’s broken public pension system
Last fall, members of the Colorado Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA) got some bad news: the amortization periods for the public pension system’s two largest funds had ballooned dangerously. Under current assumptions, the state fund would not be fully funded for 55 years, and the even larger school fund would not be fully funded for 75 years.
Mismanaged pension funds are imperiling state budgets
As the looming public pension storm gathers strength, debate is expanding past technical matters and into the governance structures of taxpayer-funded pension plans. The problems that beset our public pensions are not the result of random chance, evil spirits, or swamp gas. They are the result of conscious decisions made by human beings.
