Colorado is expected to return $2.7 billion to taxpayers. The legislature hasn’t determined how to refund the money – By Jesse Paul (Colorado Springs) / Mar 30 2023
If the legislature doesn’t act, the TABOR surplus will be returned through checks tied to taxpayers’ income levels, with higher earners getting bigger refunds. Democrats say that system is inequitable.
Checks in the mail? An income tax cut? Property tax relief?
State government is expected this year to collect $2.7 billion in tax revenue above Colorado’s constitutional cap on government spending, according to the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting, money that the Democratic majority in the legislature will have to decide how to refund.
The decision has to be made before the 2023 legislative session ends May 8, meaning lawmakers will have to act fast on the big-ticket item. The legislature didn’t learn until earlier this month, when it received its quarterly economic and tax revenue forecasts, how much money collected in the 2023-23 fiscal year, which runs through June 30, it would have to return.
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a 1992 constitutional amendment approved by Colorado voters, caps governmental growth each year to population increases and the rate of inflation. Any money collected over the cap has to be refunded, but the legislature has broad discretion over how the refunds are issued.
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