On Thursday, March 12, Policy Analyst Nash Herman submitted testimony for Senate Bill 135 to the Senate Finance Committee.
If passed, the bill would refer a ballot measure to voters in the 2026 election that would ask them to approve a new TABOR revenue and spending limit and could end TABOR refunds forever. However, SB-135 is being framed as an education funding bill. Below is Nash’s testimony:
Thank you, chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to comment on Senate Bill 135. My name is Nash Herman, and I am a fiscal policy analyst at Independence Institute, Colorado’s free-market think tank. I also write articles for Complete Colorado on fiscal topics in Colorado.
At its core, Senate Bill 135 is not an education funding bill. The proposal would fundamentally alter TABOR’s revenue and spending limits and could permanently end TABOR refunds.
The bill creates a new TABOR limit, similar to Referendum C, passed in 2005. However, while the bill does add funding for education, it is possible that only a fraction of the state’s newly retained revenue would reach education. The rest is explicitly allowed to be used for “any other purpose.” After ten years, none of the retained revenue under the new TABOR cap will be required to be spent on education.
For decades, voters have been sold similar measures like Amendment 23, Referendum C, Marijuana taxes, “debruced” school districts, all with the understanding that there will be enough money for education. Yet voters are still told it is not enough, and that the state needs potentially billions of dollars more in revenue.
According to the bill’s fiscal note forecast, only approximately $200 million of the retained revenue would be required to go to education, while the remaining $600 million would be available to the state’s General Fund without limit in the first year alone.
I ask: Why does the government need hundreds of millions of dollars more in taxpayer money than it plans to give to education? Could they not ask voters to raise revenue only up to the amount they want to spend on education?
This bill appears to be an attempt to relieve the state government from the consequences of its unsustainable spending habits, which are causing the state’s structural deficit. Senate Bill 135 uses education funding to convince voters to cover the General Assembly’s structural deficit, all while using money that would otherwise be returned to taxpayers.
Ultimately, TABOR remains popular with Coloradans because we believe in reasonable government growth and transparency in how our money is spent. This bill, if passed, has the potential to end Coloradans’ reasonable restraint of government growth for decades to come, if not forever. Thank you.
