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Colorado Democrats plan to file legislation this session that would ask voters for permission to raise the state spending cap by billions while also increasing funding for education.
The idea, brought to lawmakers by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, is the most recent proposal to retool the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights. TABOR, as it’s known, limits the state’s revenue growth, making it hard to spend more money on schools and other priorities.
CEA President Kevin Vick said the measure would be placed on the 2026 ballot and will ask voters to raise the TABOR spending cap by the amount of the current general fund education budget, which is about $4.5 billion in the 2025-26 year.
The measure would essentially exempt current K-12 general fund spending from TABOR, which restricts state revenue growth to the rate of inflation plus population growth. The maneuver would make room under the cap to allow the state to keep money for education and other priorities instead of returning that money to voters as TABOR requires.
“We need to see some advancement and some improvement in our funding,” Vick said. “Otherwise, we’re just going to be floundering like we have in these last few years.”
Colorado has put more money toward schools for the past few years, but a pair of studies commissioned by state lawmakers concluded the state needs to spend $3.5 to $4.1 billion more to provide students with an adequate education.
The proposed measure would increase school funding by about 2% — or about $90 million — each year for 10 years.
The initiative would help solve two major issues.
The funding would help pay to adequately teach students statewide. And lawmakers have faced spending deficits due to increasing costs in programs such as Medicaid. This year, lawmakers will need to cut more than $800 million to balance the 2026-27 budget after trimming over $1 billion in the 2025 legislative session.
Republicans are expected to push back on any measure that would alter the TABOR cap.
Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican who also sits on the state’s Joint Budget Committee, said Democrats have long bemoaned TABOR when their “addiction to spending” is the problem. She said she wouldn’t support the proposal.
“We’re not in a recession,” she said. “It’s not like we have less revenues coming in.”
Left-leaning tax policy groups have said state spending has only grown modestly in the last two decades, causing spending on basic needs like education to lag behind. Democrats have also pointed to TABOR for years as limiting what can be spent on education and other priorities.
Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat who is the Joint Budget Committee vice chair and plans to sponsor the legislation, said he’s worried the current TABOR spending limits mean the state won’t be able to maintain recent investments in K-12 education. That includes the continued implementation of the state’s new school funding formula, which is in its first year, and eliminating the Budget Stabilization Factor in the 2024-25 school year.
The funding formula will be phased in over seven years and require $500 million more for education. And the Budget Stabilization Factor allowed lawmakers to divert billions in constitutionally mandated education funding to other priorities. Bridges said he doesn’t want to return to pulling money away from schools.
“We are fighting every year to just keep what we’ve been able to accomplish,” he said. “This allows us to not only do that, but to continue to invest in our schools.”
Voters have rejected several efforts to alter TABOR or raise the spending cap since the spending cap was last revised in 2005.
A progressive coalition also wants voters to amend the Constitution to move Colorado to a graduated income tax rate. The measure, which would be on the 2026 ballot, would also raise billions for the state to spend on priorities such as health care and education.
Vick said he believes the measure his organization has pitched can succeed because the teacher union’s public polling shows overwhelming support for increasing K-12 education funding.
CEA polls say voters by a 2-to-1 margin are willing to give up their TABOR rebates to put more money toward improving education, Vick said. More money going toward schools would help retain teachers. Colorado’s teacher turnover rate remains high, he said.
“I think voters and people in the community are really concerned that they are seeing their kids’ favorite teachers leave the profession year after year, simply because they can’t make a go of it in this state,” he said. “We have to stop that churn as a state, and we have to make sure that our educators can live in their communities.”
Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
