TABOR & Colorado Fiscal Policy
TABOR refunds, surplus revenue, and fiscal policy in Colorado.
Coverage Timeline
View all →In its 50th year, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers grades lawmakers ahead of the June 30 primary
CUT president Kim Monson read the highest and lowest 2026 scores in both chambers and tied the ratings to a November ballot measure that would loosen TABOR and a proposed…
Two November ballot measures take aim at TABOR and Colorado’s flat income tax
The Colorado Union of Taxpayers is sounding the alarm on a referred K-12 funding measure and a proposed graduated income tax.
Pfiffner warns two November measures would curb TABOR refunds and end Colorado’s flat tax
On the Kim Monson Show, TABOR Foundation chairman Penn Pfiffner said a referred K-12 funding measure and a graduated-income-tax initiative could together raise Colorado taxes by about $3 billion a…
Colorado’s $46.8 billion budget and the November ballot fight over TABOR
As the Colorado Union of Taxpayers sends its ratings on 178 bills to the printer, Kim Monson points to a $46.8 billion state budget and the November ballot measure that…
Arizona adopts the new federal tax cuts in full while Colorado adds them back
Arizona just conformed its income tax to the federal One Big Beautiful Bill, passing the no-tax-on-tips and no-tax-on-overtime breaks through to its workers. Former Coloradan Susan Harris told The Kim…
How SB26-135 reaches the 2026 ballot and tests the TABOR revenue cap
The Colorado legislature referred a measure to the November 2026 ballot that would let the state keep roughly $1.1 billion in TABOR refunds over two years to fund K-12 education.
Tenth Circuit weighs whether Colorado’s rental car fee is an illegal airport tax
The American Car Rental Association is asking the federal appeals court to revive its challenge to Colorado's congestion impact fee of up to $3 a day on car rentals, created…
88 Drive-In owner says property taxes quadrupled to $60,000 since Gallagher
Susan Kochevar says the tax bill on her family's Commerce City drive-in climbed from about $13,900 to $60,000 in four years, all due before her season opens. She ties the…
Colorado measure would let state keep TABOR refunds for schools
A November ballot question sent to voters by SB26-135 would let Colorado retain surplus revenue it now refunds to taxpayers, funding a decade of K-12 increases.
Johnson says HB26-1430 fits a Colorado pattern of legislating around voters
Former state Rep. Ramey Johnson, a Colorado Union of Taxpayers board member, told The Kim Monson Show that the road-funding bill is the latest entry in a thirty-year pattern of…
State agencies are spending $3 million to sell Coloradans on a rail tax before the ballot question is written
A CDOT grant routes $3 million to the Front Range Passenger Rail District for polling, dozens of town halls, branded coalition-building, and a digital advocacy platform now live as Colorado…
House panel advances HB26-1430, a Friday-drop tax-cut bill that activates only if voters approve Initiative 175
Colorado House Transportation, Housing and Local Government voted 9 to 4 along party lines on May 5 to refer a bill that cuts gas taxes and registration fees if, and…
Colorado House passes HB26-1419 TABOR clawback 41-21 after rejecting Republican referendum amendments
Reps. Chris Richardson and Ken DeGraaf tried to send the FY24-25 over-refund question to the November 2026 ballot under Article X, Section 20. Democrats rejected the amendments and the reversal…
Front Range rail bill SB26-172 advances with appointed subdistrict boards holding ad valorem taxing power
SB26-172 expands the Front Range Passenger Rail District and lets its appointed board carve out subdistricts whose own appointed boards inherit Colorado special-district powers, including ad valorem taxes once debt…
Colorado’s new gaming fee writes its own TABOR exemption
HB26-1418 imposes a 5 percent fee on in-game add-on purchases and routes up to $22.8 million a year into a new state-owned business its drafters say "does not require voter…
Sanctuary bill risks millions in federal jail reimbursements, Slaugh warns
HB26-1276 would tighten limits on state cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and Rep. Scott Slaugh says the move could cost Colorado and its counties more than $4 million a year…
Jeffco weighs a 2026 mill levy override as enrollment falls and reserves drain
Former school board director Susan Miller, speaking on The Kim Monson Show, says taxpayers should demand outcomes-tied accountability before approving a new operating tax for a district closing schools and…
Colorado HB26-1119 would let local governments tax vacant land at a higher rate than buildings
The bill faces opposition from taxpayer advocates, home builders, chambers of commerce, and county assessors, and invokes Milton Friedman for a policy his own 1978 words do not support.
HB26-1401 raids $75 million from Colorado’s unclaimed property trust fund
A bipartisan Joint Budget Committee bill moves $75 million out of a trust fund the state's own statutes describe as off-limits, and it does so just under seven weeks after…
Colorado’s enterprise-fee end-run around TABOR
Laramie Energy CEO Bob Boswell told Kim Monson a business and labor coalition is preparing litigation to force Colorado's enterprise fees back under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, and the…
Related Threads
2026 Colorado Legislative Session
Tighter gun rules and other new Colorado laws take effect July 1
2026 Colorado Elections
In its 50th year, the Colorado Union of Taxpayers grades lawmakers ahead of the June 30 primary
