Democrats plan to send Coloradans $2 billion in taxpayer refunds through a system they’ve blasted as inequitable – By Jesse Paul (Colorado Sun) / May 1, 2023
Ahead of the 2022 election, Jared Polis and Democrats in the legislature sped up TABOR refund checks and made them flat. This year, they’re reverting to a default system.
The Colorado legislature is on track to issue about $2 billion in taxpayer refunds through a system that the Democratic majority at the state Capitol has previously blasted as inequitable.
State lawmakers have broad authority over how to refund money collected above the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap on government growth, which is calculated annually based on population and inflation increases. But this year, lawmakers are choosing not to exercise that power and instead rely on a default refund mechanism adopted by the General Assembly in 1999, when Republicans were in charge.
The default mechanism links refund amounts to each taxpayer’s income, based on six income tiers. Under the system — called the six-tier sales tax refund mechanism — people who make more money get bigger refund checks in the mail. The approach is meant to refund more money to people who pay more in taxes.
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