Democrat TABOR Revenue Reclassification Plan Draws Scrutiny at State Capitol

By Nash Herman | Complete Colorado

Similar to last year’s Senate Bill 173, legislative Democrats are returning this year with another effort to bypass Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) by reclassifying certain state revenue streams. 

While Senate Bill 26-042 may have some plausibility under specific TABOR terms, it raises broader concerns about the runaway growth of Colorado’s state government, and the mechanisms legislators pursue to evade voter consent over taxation. 

What the bill does 

While TABOR generally limits the growth of a portion of state revenue to a modest formula of population growth plus inflation, it allows for certain carve outs such as “damage awards” and “collections for another government.” 

While TABOR did not define those terms, the implementing statutes defined “damage awards” as “any pecuniary compensation received by the state as a result of any judgement or allowance in favor of the state,” and “collections for another government” as “any revenue that is collected for the state for the benefit or use of another government other than the state and passed through to that government other than the state for the benefit and use by that government.” 

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