What you need to know about Amendment 73

What is Amendment 73?

Amendment 73 is designed to raise $1.6 billion to fund P-12 education by raising the state individual income tax rate for taxpayers with taxable income over $150,000, increases the state corporate income tax rate to 6%, sets the state assessment rate at 7% for residential properties and decrease the assessment rate to 24% for most nonresidential properties.

What are the unintended consequences?

The Business Times

Because of the unintended interaction with the Gallagher Amendment, the ballot measure would divert money from all other taxing districts to schools.

The Denver Post

One of our major concerns is about just such unintended consequences. At worst, Amendment 73 would result in the loss of millions of dollars in revenue for cities, towns, and special districts. Aside from that unintended consequence, we are concerned by the sheer size of the tax increase.

The Reporter-Herald

It is deceptive. Deceitful because it is being sold as a tax increase on wealthy CEOs and corporations, but that’s dishonest. Amendment 73 triggers a massive income tax increase on tens of thousands of small businesses, farms, middle income married couples, and each and every homeowner in Colorado. It permanently removes all education dollars from the state’s spending limits, with no assurance the money will end up in classrooms and in the hands of hard-working teachers.

Do you know what your property tax rates are today?

Did you know that Amendment 73 will require homeowners pay higher property taxes into the future, with actual property tax bills increasing from their current level at a rate that will now grow as fast as the value of their home?

73 would set the residential property tax rate at 7% (an increase over the projected rate of 6.1% as determined by Gallagher).

As a voter, ask yourself these questions:

Do you believe we should fix the school finance formula before we fund more school money, so that we can make sure the money goes to our hardworking teachers and students?

See some of the proposals for changes:

Is there a reason that we do not have any local funding lists for education taxes like we do for transportation?

Why Colorado’s school districts believe increased funding will NOT improve student achievement

Is 73 Right for Colorado? A $1.6 Billion tax hike on Colorado families and employers and small businesses

Have you heard about how Amendment 73 could increase income taxes on tens of thousands of small businesses, farms, middle income married couples, and each and every homeowner in Colorado? Some of Colorado’s best-known and most vital employers would be faced with tax increases as high as 78%.

Do you believe it’s right to force many small and independent businesses to pay an income tax rate as much as 37% higher than the rate applied to multi-billion dollar corporations? Why is it okay for small businesses to pay more than big companies?

Are you a small business? How does this effect you?

As you make your choice this election, ask yourself:

Are there any measures built into the language that guarantee results?

How do we know the spending will go to the right place?

If approved, Colorado would go from having among the lowest income tax rates in the nation to the 8^th highest. When other states have enacted tax increases this large, companies have re-located jobs and headquarters to other states.

Does keeping Colorado competitive factor into your decision about whether you support or oppose Amendment 73?

The two largest newspapers in Colorado, the Denver Post and the Colorado Springs Gazette, are both opposed to Amendment 73. 

What do Colorado’s leaders have to say?

Governor John Hickenlooper (D):

Governor Hickenlooper tells residents in Sterling that 73 doesn’t have a chance of passing. Hickenlooper said he believes voters will view the amendment as too big of a tax increase that will hurt the economy. “I think you guys sold out the business community.” (to Superintendent Rob Sanders, who helped author the school funding amendment on the November ballot).

Representative Jon Becker (R):

Electors will be asked whether to increase state taxes by $1.6 billion annually to fund preschool through high school education. Becker’s wife is a classroom educator. The amendment does not require a percentage of the funds go to the classroom. “I would love for my wife to earn $80,000 as a teacher so I could retire,” Becker said. “Where the funding gap lies in my opinion is in getting funds into the classroom.” He’s also concerned passage of the measure would result in an unintended consequence of other special districts getting less. Additionally, he questioned the manner in which taxes would be raised. “I have a problem picking on one group of people,” Becker said. “Eventually that group goes away.”

U.S. Representative Jared Polis (D):

It appears even Jared Polis has some reservations: “Polis’s lean toward the center can be seen in his opposition to a ballot measure that would increase the sales tax to pay for long-overdue transportation and transit needs in Colorado, and in his neutral position on Amendment 73, which would raise taxes on the wealthy to fund schools. But it perhaps most glaring on oil and gas drilling – the issue on which he made the most headlines and spent the most political capital before his bid for governor.”

Former Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives Dickey Lee Hullinghorst (D) and former Boulder County Treasurer Bob Hullinghorst (D)

In endorsing a “no” vote for Amendment 73’s tax increase for K-12 education, your editorial board writes “…we would hope that Colorado lawmakers would do the right thing and dedicate the lion’s share (of general fund revenue) to increasing K-12 education funding.” It’s unfortunate, but many of us no longer have faith — nor do we have the patience to sit around waiting and hoping — that Colorado lawmakers will make a decision that is in the best interest of Colorado students and teachers.