Colorado voters will decide in November whether to give up their Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds for the foreseeable future and let the state keep and spend billions more dollars, primarily to increase K-12 education funding.
Democrats in the legislature gave final approval early Tuesday to Senate Bill 135, which places the question on the ballot.
If voters approve the ballot measure, the state’s annual TABOR cap on government growth and spending would increase by an amount equal to the most the state has spent on K-12 funding in a single year. That’s currently about $4.6 billion, but it’s expected to rise in future years.
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 TABOR surplus kept by the state would first have to go toward boosting K-12 education spending by 2% — or about $107.4 million in the first year — over the prior year’s spending. The money, millions of extra dollars for the state’s largest school districts, would be earmarked to increase teacher pay, reduce teacher turnover, limit the number of students in classrooms and prepare students for the workforce.
Money leftover once that 2% increase has been accomplished would be divided between K-12 education and other programs benefiting kids, primarily early childhood initiatives like preschool access and childcare.
The measure would require that at least half of all the surplus kept by the state in a given year goes to K-12 schools. For instance, if the state keeps $500 million in TABOR surplus and a 2% increase in K-12 spending accounts for $100 million, another $150 million would go to school districts while the remaining $250 million would go toward other programs for kids.
After a decade, the 2% increase would be calculated based on the state’s K-12 spending in the 2034-35 fiscal year.
If the ballot measure passes, it wouldn’t mean the legislature would have $4.6 billion more to spend overnight. The governor’s office expects to exceed the existing TABOR cap by about $711 million and then by $516 million in the next two fiscal years. Some of that money is already earmarked for other priorities, namely reimbursing local governments for the cost of a property tax break for seniors.
Assuming there are no recessions in the next decade, it might take 10 years — at a minimum — before the full funding boost takes effect.
Initially, the measure would have let the legislature spend any money leftover after the surplus pays for a 2% increase in education spending on anything it saw fit, such as Medicaid and roads. But the bill’s sponsors narrowed the legislation as it made its way through the Capitol to make it more attractive to voters.
“This is billions more for K-12 public education,” said state Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill. “Every dollar goes to kids.”
Senate Bill 135 passed by a vote of 42-21 in the House and by a vote of 23-12 in the Senate. No Republican voted “yes” on the measure.
“I’m all about making sure that kids are educated,” said Assistant House Minority Leader Ty Winter, a Trinidad Republican.
But he argued that the legislature should find ways to increase school funding within the bounds of the TABOR cap.
As a referred measure, Senate Bill 135 doesn’t go to the governor’s desk for approval. Its passage alone means it will be on the November ballot.
Senate Bill 135’s other main sponsors are Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins, Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, and state Rep. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs.
While the legislature fully funds K-12 education as required in the state constitution, two studies commissioned through legislation in 2023 found that Colorado is behind in school spending by about $3.5 billion to $4 billion in terms of what it would cost to meet all student needs.
It’s unclear how the measure, supported by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, will 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 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. Supporters need to gather about 125,000 voter signatures, which typically costs millions of dollars, by Aug. 3.