Two Rival Income-Tax Measures Collide on Colorado's Ballot: Amendment 87's Graduated Rates Versus Proposition 136's 4.4 Percent Cap
Denver, Colorado — Colorado's November ballot carries two income-tax measures pulling in opposite directions: Amendment 87 would repeal the state constitution's flat-rate requirement and introduce graduated rates, while Proposition 136 would cap individual and corporate income-tax rates at 4.4 percent. The state's official ballot information booklet, the Blue Book, says that if both pass, the conflict would have to be resolved by the legislature or the courts.
Under the Blue Book analysis, Amendment 87 sets six marginal brackets: 3.7 percent on taxable income up to $25,000, 4.2 percent from $25,001 to $100,000, 4.4 percent from $100,001 to $500,000, and 7.4, 7.9 and 8.4 percent on successive bands above $500,000, with the top rate applying above $1 million. The rates would start with the 2027 tax year and raise roughly $2 billion more in the first full year, exempt from the TABOR limit, for K-12 education, health care and early-childhood care.
Proposition 136, by contrast, locks the rate ceiling at today's 4.4 percent; legislative analysts project no immediate fiscal effect if it passes alone, but it would bar future legislatures from raising rates without another statewide vote. Each measure gets its own yes-or-no vote, and where measures conflict the one with more votes generally controls, though the Blue Book explicitly leaves the outcome unclear. A taxpayer with $125,000 of taxable income would owe $325 less under Amendment 87, the maximum reduction, while a $2 million earner would owe $55,925 more.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 科罗拉多州议会大厦金顶（丹佛）。图：Creativeminds34，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0。 / The golden dome of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Photo by Creativeminds34, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
