Colorado voters would be asked in November to raise the state’s cap on government growth and spending by billions of dollars, primarily to increase K-12 education funding, under a bill Democrats are planning to introduce at the Capitol this year.
The measure is backed by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, and other education organizations.
The initiative would raise the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap by the amount of money the state spends on K-12 education through the general fund. That’s currently about $4.5 billion.
The money would be prioritized to increase K-12 education spending by at least 2% each year — about $90 million in the first year. Any leftover dollars could be used to cover the cost of other state programs and services.
A bill placing the measure on the November ballot only needs a simple majority of support in each the state House and Senate to pass. Democrats hold wide majorities in both chambers.
The TABOR cap restricts the amount of money state lawmakers can spend each year based on the annual change in inflation and population. Any dollars collected over the cap must be refunded to taxpayers.
The measure is seen by Democrats as a way to solve two financial conundrums at once.
It would let the state increase its spending on education. Two studies commissioned through legislation in 2023 that found Colorado is behind in school spending by about $3.5 billion to $4 billion.
It would also help solve a structural gap between how much money the legislature has to spend and how much it costs to continue offering the same government services and programs. This year, that shortfall is expected to be about $850 million, primarily because of the increased cost of Medicaid.
Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat and vice chair of the powerful Joint Budget Committee, is the lead sponsor of the forthcoming bill that would refer the ballot measure to voters.
Bridges said the measure would offer a “targeted solution” to address ongoing budget challenges that force lawmakers to continually cut services as the costs of those services continue to rise faster than inflation.
“This addresses that challenge and it does so in a way that guarantees that K-12 is the primary beneficiary of this,” Bridges said, saying it has “the potential to be one of the most transformative measures for K-12 funding” in a long time.
Bridges said the measure would include a clause requiring audits to make sure the money is being spent as intended — on reducing class sizes, boosting teacher pay and college and career preparation for students.
He cautioned that the proposal remains in flux and that it could change significantly before introduction. The 2026 legislative session in Colorado began Wednesday and runs 120 days through mid-May. It’s unclear when the bill referring the ballot measure may be introduced.
If the ballot measure passed, it wouldn’t mean the legislature would have $4.5 billion more to spend overnight. The existing TABOR cap is only expected to be exceeded in the next fiscal year by about $500 million and by about $800 million in the subsequent fiscal year. Some of that money is already earmarked for other priorities.
Assuming there are no recessions in the next decade, it might take 10 years — at a minimum — before the full funding boost takes effect.
Colorado has made significant progress in recent years in increasing education funding, segmenting an additional $500 million over seven years for schools through a school funding formula adopted by the legislature last year. That new formula also revised the way school districts receive state dollars, equipping them with more resources to educate kids with greater learning needs, such as students learning English and those living in poverty.
Additionally, lawmakers wiped out the state’s budget stabilization factor, a tool introduced during the Great Recession that allowed the legislature to give schools less money than what they were owed under the state constitution.
Still, education advocates who have long argued Colorado severely underfunds its public schools say it’s time to find another way to garner more money for students. This measure would get the state “significantly closer” to more adequate education funding, CEA President Kevin Vick told The Colorado Sun.
“We’re becoming really exhausted with every legislative session coming and trying to figure out how to navigate our state revenue situation such that education is not significantly harmed,” Vick said. “We should be trying to as a state find ways to improve education funding, and we’re stuck in this cycle where every time we are just barely treading water. So something has to change and we feel this is an important step to have the state begin to make the change that is needed.”
Critics of the proposals argue lawmakers should stop trying to circumvent TABOR.
“It’s been 34 years since TABOR passed,” said state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican and member of the JBC. “Thirty-four years and in the last seven years, certainly in the last five years, our colleagues across the aisle, instead of trying to work with TABOR and work within TABOR, are trying to figure out how to work around TABOR.”
Kirkmeyer and other Republicans say too much has been spent in recent years on increasing bureaucracy.
“It’s time for our colleagues across the aisle to quit placing blame on others, quit placing blame on TABOR, and to get down to work,” she said.
It’s unclear how the measure would fare at the ballot box. Colorado voters have refused over the past decade to lift or increase the TABOR cap, most recently in 2023, when they rejected Proposition HH, a measure that would have increased the TABOR cap while trying to rein in property taxes. It failed by a wide margin.
Democrats inside and outside of the Capitol are eyeing other TABOR changes at the ballot box this year. A coalition of progressive groups wants to ask voters to amend the constitution to impose a graduated income tax rate, which would raise billions of dollars by imposing higher taxes on the state’s highest earners and lowering or keeping stagnant the rates for the vast majority of the state.
However, that measure is a long way from making the ballot. The language has yet to be approved by state elections officials and then supporters need to gather about 125,000 voter signatures, which typically costs millions of dollars.
This is a developing story that will be updated.