Amendment 87: Establish Graduated Income Tax and Dedicate New Revenue to Education, Healthcare, and Childcare Initiative

Amendment 87 changes Colorado’s flat income tax, where everyone, whether they make $15,000 or $1,000,000, pays the same 4.4%, to a graduated income tax system. The new system would have the following rates based on income: Annual Income Range→Proposed Tax Rate $0 - $25,000→3.7% $25,000 - $100,000→4.2% $100,000 - $500,000→4.4% $500,000 - $750,000→4.4% for the first $500,000 and then 7.4% after $500,000 $750,000 - $1,000,000→4.4% for the first $500,000 and then 7.9% after $500,000 Over $1,000,000→4.4% for the first $500,000 and then 8.4% after $500,000 We recommend voting YES on this amendment. - Amendment 87 lowers the state income tax for 97% of us. It does gradually raise taxes on the wealthiest 3%. In El Paso County, the number of taxpayers who would get a tax cut is 99.2%. - Amendment 87 would raise an estimated $2 billion, which will go toward healthcare, K-12 education, and child care. - Amendment 87 does not eliminate TABOR. It funds the healthcare, education, and child care programs that TABOR has starved. - Amendment 87 is a citizen-led effort for a fairer tax rate than Prop 136. Prop 136 is funded by the dark money of Advance Colorado. Vote NO on Prop 136. Vote YES on Amendment 87. Colorado needs a fair income tax. Our firefighters and construction workers should not pay the same rate as billionaires. Funding healthcare, child care, and education benefits all of us.

We encourage voters to vote YES on Amendment 87 Graduated Income Tax. Colorado desperately needs a change to our tax system to be more fair, where lower earners pay less and higher earners pay more, and this additional revenue to support education, health care, and child care is needed to ensure our state can prosper.

Amendment 87 would replace Colorado's current uniform income-tax structure with a graduated system and increase state taxes by approximately $2.7 billion annually under the ballot title. The proposal would establish rates reaching 8.4% for higher levels of taxable income.

Why Vote NO?

Colorado's current flat income-tax structure provides predictability for individuals and businesses.

Amendment 87 would move Colorado toward a highly graduated income-tax system and authorize substantially greater state taxation.

Higher tax rates do not simply affect wealthy individuals. They can affect investment, entrepreneurship, business decisions, compensation, and economic growth.

Most importantly, the amendment would fundamentally change Colorado's tax structure by replacing a single rate with multiple rates reaching substantially above today's 4.4% rate.

Colorado should compete for businesses and taxpayers rather than continually expanding the government's claim on their income.

Position: Reject a large tax increase and preserve Colorado's competitive flat-tax structure. Vote NO.

The DMCC Board voted to oppose Amendment 87, which would replace Colorado's current income tax system with a graduated tax structure. The massive $2+ billion annual tax increase would make it more expensive for our local Main Street businesses to create jobs, operate and grow. This measure would put us among the top 10 highest income tax states in the nation.

The measure promises tax rate cuts to many Coloradans, but does not adjust the proposed brackets to inflation, so the promised rate cuts will disappear as inflation moves unsuspecting taxpayers into higher brackets with no additional spending power.

Would replace Colorado’s flat income tax, in place since 1987, with progressive income tax rates. Ever since Democrats gained one-party rule in Colorado, government spending has been spiraling out of control. Facing huge budget deficits, this is yet another tax increase, and a mammoth one at that, driving an additional 2.7 billion dollars a-year flowing into government coffers and none of it subject to TABOR refunds. With this measure, Democrats are buying the votes of taxpayers in lower brackets with a slight tax decrease, while lowering the boom on individuals and corporations with incomes over $500,000, almost doubling their tax rates to as much as 8.4%. (Since the tax brackets won’t be adjusted for inflation, as federal tax rates are, “bracket creep” would automatically raise taxes on everyone each year.) As has happened in other Democrat-controlled states and cities, this will drive even more successful, taxpaying individuals and businesses out of Colorado, depriving us of any of their tax revenue, innovations, talent, and charitable contributions.