Recent polling released for the Bell Policy Center found that 60% of Colorado voters agree with the statement “it’s time to figure out how to raise taxes on the wealthy and provide more education, health and child care funding, so that everyone can afford the rising cost of living.”
Coincidently, this comes at the same time as the Governor of New York announced $2.3 billion less in revenue collections than expected. While citing the effects of the recent federal tax reform and the loss of revenue tied with wealthy families choosing to move outside of the state he said, “Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich—and then they leave. And then what do you do?”
Colorado voters this past November voted down Amendment 73 which would have changed the state’s current flat tax to a graduated income tax. Amendment 73 lost by 10 points.
To understand the impacts of such a reform, you can find the full results of our study here.