Exclusive: Colorado lawmakers split over limits on taxes

By Elyse Apel
The Center Square

Colorado Rep. Lorena Garcia is calling for an end to Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, commonly known as TABOR.

“I will say unequivocally that TABOR is bad for Colorado,” the Democrat said recently at a press conference in response to a question from The Center Square. “It does not allow the state to be responsive to the needs that exist within our state and our communities.”

Republicans in the state are concerned about that rhetoric for a policy they say the majority of Coloradans support.

In an exclusive interview with The Center Square, Colorado Rep. Rick Taggart, R-Grand Junction, addressed Garcia’s comments.

“The voters have had the opportunity at least twice to overturn TABOR,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, each time it has come up on the ballot, it has been defeated.”

First passed in 1992, TABOR allows Colorado to lead the nation as the only state that has a revenue cap on how much money the state can bring in. As part of the state constitution, it has a few key requirements:

• The state may only retain an amount of revenue equal to the previous year’s revenue, with adjustments made each year for population growth and inflation.

• Above that, the state is required to refund any additional money brought in back to the taxpayers.

• It also requires that any increase in taxation goes to a vote of the people.

Garcia argued TABOR is “arbitrary.”

“We are stuck with an arbitrary formula on how tax rates can increase or how they can change,” she said. “We’re also stuck with these extremely restrictive practices on when we can make adjustments to the formula, which dictates how the tax dollars that we raise can be spent.”

Instead of being arbitrary, Taggart, who serves on the Joint Budget Committee, argued taxes under TABOR are actually very calculated.

“It’s not arbitrary at all. It is a very straightforward formula,” he said. “It’s a very objective measure that we live by within our families, and we by live within our business community. So I would more ask the question, ‘Why can’t government live by a similar approach?’”

Garcia is not the only Democrat pushing for the end of TABOR. She joins them in arguing that TABOR prevents the state government from taking necessary actions to protect services for the taxpayers.

“TABOR does not let Colorado be a responsible budgeting state,” she said. “If we get rid of TABOR … what we’re able to do then is to provide the resources necessary and the services necessary.”

Taggart pushed back against that. He explained that under an influx of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Colorado vastly increased taxpayer-funded services. Now it is being forced to cut back its budget as those funds dry up.

“Honestly, folks got used to being flush with cash … and now those dollars are gone,” Taggart said. “Now, they want to focus on making TABOR the problem instead of overspending that created bloat. We can’t do that. We have to live within our means.”

In total, Colorado received more than $9 billion from ARPA. Now, especially following funding cuts in the “Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” the state is scrambling to balance its budget. The legislature returned in August for a special session to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall.

While Garcia said TABOR is “terrible for Colorado,” Ross Kaminsky from the Common Sense Institute of Colorado disagreed.

He recently spoke with The Center Square about a report he authored that highlighted how TABOR has saved the state billions of dollars in spending, while also driving economic growth. Kaminsky said he does not see an end to the attacks on TABOR, despite voter support for it remaining strong.

“Democrats certainly have a theory of government, which is that government knows best, and more government spending is better … So they object to anything that limits the amount of money that they can take from taxpayers,” he said. “I think that Democrats will not give up until that [TABOR] is gone.”