Sep 28, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
This week on Colorado Chamber Office Hours, host Ed Sealover breaks down two competing measures on Colorado’s November ballot. Amendment 87 would replace the state’s flat income tax with a graduated…
Chris deGruy KennedyGuestEd SealoverHost
Kristi Burton BrownGuestI'm guessing that many of you who are listening right now were not residents of Colorado in 1987, unless you wouldn't remember when the state switched from a graduated income tax system to a flat tax system.
And for those not familiar with the lingo, that flat tax system means that if you pay income taxes in this state, whether you're an individual or a business, you're paying 4.4% of whatever your income level happens to be.
Now, years of debate about whether this is the proper way to fund state government and to equitably tax those who live and transact here has come to a head.
And two initiatives on the November ballot seek to determine once and for all whether Colorado should cement that singular income tax rate into place or should return to a graduated income tax system in which people and businesses who make more money pay higher rates.
And on today's episode of Colorado Chamber Office Hours, we're going to talk to proponents of both measures.
We're going to tell you why their ideas are appropriate and their opponents are not.
It says that income tax rates in Colorado may not rise above the current level of 4.4%.
And it was inspired in no small part by the initiative to which it's juxtaposed, Amendment 87.
Amendment 87, being pushed by a coalition known as Protect Colorado's Future, would replace that universal 4.4% income tax rate with a six-tiered marginal tax system based on your income level.
Between $25,000 and $100,000, you're paying a slightly less than present rate of 4.2%.
but exceed that half-million-dollar mark in income, and that's for an individual or for a business, which can hit that mark a little more quickly, and that rate goes up.
7.4% for income between $500,000 and $750,000, 7.9% for income between $750,000 and $1 million, and 8.4% for that above $1 million.
That change in taxes, by the way, is expected to increase tax bills for state businesses and residents by between $2 and $2.7 billion in its first full year, money that the proposed amendment would direct toward education, health care, and early childhood education.
I'm guessing that many of you who are listening right now were not residents of Colorado in 1987, unless you wouldn't remember when the state switched from a graduated income tax system to a flat tax system.
And for those not familiar with the lingo, that flat tax system means that if you pay income taxes in this state, whether you're an individual or a business, you're paying 4.4% of whatever your income level happens to be.
Now, years of debate about whether this is the proper way to fund state government and to equitably tax those who live and transact here has come to a head.
And two initiatives on the November ballot seek to determine once and for all whether Colorado should cement that singular income tax rate into place or should return to a graduated income tax system in which people and businesses who make more money pay higher rates.
And on today's episode of Colorado Chamber Office Hours, we're going to talk to proponents of both measures.
We're going to tell you why their ideas are appropriate and their opponents are not.
It says that income tax rates in Colorado may not rise above the current level of 4.4%.
And it was inspired in no small part by the initiative to which it's juxtaposed, Amendment 87.
Amendment 87, being pushed by a coalition known as Protect Colorado's Future, would replace that universal 4.4% income tax rate with a six-tiered marginal tax system based on your income level.
Between $25,000 and $100,000, you're paying a slightly less than present rate of 4.2%.
but exceed that half-million-dollar mark in income, and that's for an individual or for a business, which can hit that mark a little more quickly, and that rate goes up.
7.4% for income between $500,000 and $750,000, 7.9% for income between $750,000 and $1 million, and 8.4% for that above $1 million.
That change in taxes, by the way, is expected to increase tax bills for state businesses and residents by between $2 and $2.7 billion in its first full year, money that the proposed amendment would direct toward education, health care, and early childhood education.
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