Balancing Colorado’s Budget Means Ending Medicaid Bloat
Colorado’s budget deficits will continue until Medicaid spending improves. As the National Association of State Budget Officers has pointed out, Colorado’s “FY25 spending gap was due, primarily, to Medicaid related over-expenditures.” As reported by the Colorado Sun, Joint Budget Committee Staff Director Craig Harper has warned that the Colorado legislature will continue to produce budgets […]
Leviathan by Loophole: the Growth of Colorado’s State Government After TABOR
Click here for a one-page summary of the report. Introduction and Key Findings In 1992, Coloradans passed Amendment 1 to enshrine Article X, Section 20, known as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), in the state constitution.[1] The preferred interpretation of the measure, as stated in the ballot language, was to “reasonably restrain most the […]
Backgrounder: $617 million in Hidden Taxes from 2021 Session
With the 2021 Colorado regular legislative session concluded, lawmakers have approved tax and fee increases on Coloradans of up to $617 million annually without voter consent. The new revenues are enough to give every schoolteacher in Colorado a $11,343.65 per year raise. The tax and fee increases amount to an average of $430 per year […]
Regressive Fees Fund Transportation Bill
Despite being awash with funds from improved revenues and billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid to the state, Democrat legislators have chosen to fund their transportation priorities with regressive new fees that disproportionately impact the poorest Coloradans. The $5.3 billion transportation bill (SB 21-260) working its way through the legislature this week will create approximately $3.8 billion in new […]
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).
