Two November ballot measures take aim at TABOR and Colorado’s flat income tax

DENVER — Colorado voters will weigh two measures this election cycle that fiscal-restraint advocates say would erode the state’s strongest budget guardrail and its 34-year-old flat income tax. On the June 25 broadcast of The Kim Monson Show, host Kim Monson, president of the Colorado Union of Taxpayers (CUT), and her guest Brad Beck turned to both measures, and Monson urged listeners to watch the fights closely and to vote no on each.

One measure is already locked onto the November 3, 2026 ballot. The other is still a proposal that is gathering signatures and has not qualified. On the program, the two were framed as a coordinated push to claim revenue that the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, known as TABOR, would otherwise return to the people who earned it.

The measure referred by Senate Bill 135

The measure that is certain to appear on the ballot was referred by Senate Bill 135 (SB26-135), titled State Public K-12 Education Funding. As enacted, it directs the Secretary of State to ask voters whether the state may retain and spend revenue that exceeds the state’s TABOR spending limit, beginning in the 2026-27 fiscal year, and dedicate that money to public K-12 education. The bill also increases K-12 funding by a compounding 2% per year for 10 years, directing the retained dollars toward teacher pay and retention, smaller class sizes, career and technical education, and a children’s account for childcare and full-day preschool.

Because the legislature referred the question directly, passage of the bill alone placed it on the November 3, 2026 ballot without requiring the governor’s signature. The Senate passed it 23-12 on April 27, the House approved an amended version 42-21 on May 9, and the Senate concurred 23-12 on May 12, 2026. The Senate votes fell along party lines, with Democrat lawmakers in favor and Republicans opposed; in the House, one Democrat joined Republicans against it.

By keeping revenue collected above the spending limit, the measure would let the state retain and spend money that TABOR would otherwise return to taxpayers as refunds. The Colorado Union of Taxpayers formally opposed the bill, arguing that retaining capped revenue undercuts the refund protections at the heart of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, and on the show the measure was described as an effort to gut TABOR.

A proposed graduated income tax

The second measure raised on the program is still a proposal. Initiative 195, backed by the Bell Policy Center and the Protect Colorado’s Future coalition, would repeal Colorado’s 34-year constitutional requirement that all residents and businesses pay the same income-tax rate. In place of the current 4.4% flat rate, it would set graduated brackets, dropping to 3.71% for the lowest earners and rising to 8.41% on income above $1 million.

Proponents say the change would lower taxes for about 97% of residents and raise an estimated $2 billion or more a year for K-12 education, health care, and childcare, with revenue above the TABOR cap retained by the state. The initiative has a Title Board-approved title, but it is still gathering petition signatures and has not qualified for the ballot.

On the show, a graduated income tax was likened to “one of the tenets right there in the Communist Manifesto,” with a call to vote no. The fairness argument behind progressive rates also drew pushback, with the point that a single flat rate already collects far more from a high earner than from a modest one. A competing citizen initiative, Initiative 232, backed by Advance Colorado, would establish a statutory maximum income-tax rate of 4.4%; it too is still gathering signatures.

What is at stake for taxpayers

For fiscal-restraint advocates like CUT, both measures point the same way: more revenue retained and spent by the state, and less sent back to the people who earned it. The referred measure would loosen the limit on what the state keeps above the cap, while the proposed initiative would change how much different earners pay in the first place. Under TABOR, revenue collected beyond the spending limit is normally refunded unless voters agree to let the state keep it, and both measures ask voters to set that protection aside for new spending.

The program urged listeners to track both questions through November and to weigh who ultimately controls the money. With one measure locked in and another still gathering signatures, the season ahead will test how closely Colorado voters guard the refund guarantees that TABOR was written to provide.