Colorado lawmakers voted in bipartisan fashion to ask voters to remove the constitutional amendment, but didn’t offer a replacement plan
For the second straight year, Colorado voters face a choice on a complicated tax question that could have major implications for generations to come in terms of public services and taxpayers’ wallets.
This time, the matter at hand is whether to repeal the Gallagher Amendment, a constitutional provision that has had more impact on Colorado governance in recent decades than perhaps any policy initiative other than the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
The Gallagher measure has saved Colorado homeowners an estimated $35 billion in residential property taxes since voters adopted it in 1982, easing the financial blow of the state’s rising cost of living. But the drop in property tax revenue also has set off a cascade of problems for the public sector, squeezing local budgets in rural areas that can least afford it, while shifting more costs to a state government that has financial challenges of its own.
Policymakers for years had sought a compromise that would protect local services from steep cuts while maintaining some of Gallagher’s protections for homeowners. But in the face of uncharted economic territory — and a pandemic-induced $3 billion state budget deficit — state lawmakers are instead asking voters in November to repeal it entirely and without a replacement.
UNMASKED2020 is a collection of commentaries on the government’s executive and legislative actions during the historic 2020 session of the Colorado General Assembly. The 2019 legislative session had produced much equally radical legislation, like the knee-capping of the oil and gas industry in Senate Bill 181, but the 2020 session was more dramatic and arrogant in the rapid acceleration of Progressives’ radical agenda. This occurred through an unprecedented confluence of events:
