DENVER–Colorado Democrat Ken Salazar has come out in opposition to Amendment 87, the measure seeking to overhaul how the state collects income taxes, arguing it would hurt workers.
Amendment 87 proposes a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the state’s flat income tax rate requirement, replacing it with progressive system with new tax rates in six income brackets, topping out at 8.4%.
The change amounts to an estimated $2.7 billion tax increase per year, according to the ballot language.
Salazar, a former U.S. senator who has also served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the Biden administration and Interior secretary in the Obama administration, was featured in a brief video released last week by Keep Colorado Affordable, which opposes Amendment 8.7
“We have to vote no on 87. It will hurt our workers,” Salazar said in the video, which featured a construction site in the background. “The people who are working as steel workers at this site. We need to bring costs down here in Colorado.”
Salazar joins outgoing Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, as well as the progressive Denver Post editorial board, in opposing Amendment 87.
“This is a $2.7 billion dollar tax increase (more than all the other tax increases on the ballot combined) and a HUGE blank check to politicians,” Polis said on his personal Facebook page earlier this month. “This tax hike would make us the 9th highest tax state in the country and would cripple our economy and reduce jobs and for workers. Most of the new taxes would fall on small and mid-size businesses, not the wealthy, Vote NO.”
Colorado voters will also see a competing measure on their ballots – Proposition 136 – which caps the state’s income tax rate at the current 4.4%, Complete Colorado previously reported.
If voters were to approve both Amendment 87 and Proposition 136, “the exact outcome is unclear,” according to the state’s Blue Book analysis.
“Generally, when parts of voter-approved measures conflict, the policy outcome is determined by the measure that received more votes,” the Blue Book states. “However, if both measures are approved by voters, the exact outcome is unclear. The state legislature or a court will need to determine how to resolve any conflicts.”
A recent analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation found that Colorado has 53,640 filers with adjusted gross income over $500,000 who would be subject to a 7.4% tax rate under the amendment. Of those filers, 30,850 are partnership or S corporations and 14,310 have “other” business incomes.
“Households earning $500,000 or more earn 27 percent more in business income than they do in wage income,” Tax Foundation Senior Fellow Jared Walczak wrote. “In other words, high tax rates on those with incomes above $500,000 function, to a considerable degree, as higher taxes on small business ownership.
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