State legislators have introduced yet another end-run around the voter say-so on taxes guaranteed by Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), this time with House Bill 1271.
While the bill’s TABOR-bypassing scheme is not new, it’s a fresh slap in the face to Coloradans who are tired of seeing state government dig deeper into their pockets without their consent.
The bill
HB-1271 creates three new enterprises in the Behavioral Health Administration: the beer, cider, and apple wine impact and recovery enterprise, the spirits impact and recovery enterprise, and the wine impact and recovery enterprise.
These enterprises collect TABOR-exempt (and voter-exempt) taxes badly disguised as “fees” from alcohol manufacturers and distributors to “mitigate alcohol-related harms caused by the products of alcohol manufacturers and distributors.”
Volumes could be written on the misguided language and intent of the bill, which incorrectly assumes that it is someone else’s fault for individuals choosing to partake in alcohol consumption, and that they must therefore be punished.
However, for our purposes, let’s focus on the bill’s insidious attempt to bypass voter consent.
Another TABOR workaround
Despite the constant catastrophizing about not having enough revenue, Colorado lawmakers deliberately continue to ignore the fact that state government has grown far beyond what was ever intended by TABOR.
While tax revenue subject to voter consent has grown by only 44% since TABOR passed, voter-consent-exempt cash funds, such as those generated by HB-1271, have grown by 588%.
But it gets worse. Because of the meteoric increase in enterprise revenues, voters passed Proposition 117 in 2020 to require ballot-box approval of new enterprises whose expected revenues would exceed $100 million in the first five years.
With utter disregard for Colorado voters, legislators now use the scheme of creating several enterprises in place of a single enterprise to keep revenue below the threshold set by Prop 117, thus avoiding voter approval.
In short, creating multiple enterprises is a way for legislators to circumvent TABOR’s entirely reasonable design to restrain government growth to a formula of population growth plus inflation.
For example, they did so in 2021 with Senate Bill-260, which created four new “transportation sustainability” enterprises that would otherwise have required voter consent, and now in 2026, House Bill-1271 is no different.
The gold dome central planners are so certain they know what is best for you and your money that they do not think you even deserve to have a say.
