Support the campaign!
This fall's ballot will be lengthy. Below are my recommendations and reasoning on each ballot question. Click the arrow to the right of each measure for more details. I urge every voter to take some time to research each measure and consider the long term impacts of each on Colorado's future.
❌ RECOMMENDATION: OPPOSE - Measure weakens TABOR and lets government keep more taxpayer money.
This is a cash grab in the name of "the children." Proposition NN allows Colorado to retain revenue above the existing TABOR/Referendum C spending limit that would otherwise be returned to taxpayers. The money would supposedly support increased K-12 funding, including teacher pay, retention, smaller class sizes (which are controlled by local school boards, not the state) and career and technical education, but retained revenue may also be used for other undefined children's programs and property-tax reimbursements.
Legislative estimates show the measure could reduce TABOR refunds by hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Education should be a top state priority, but it should be funded by prioritizing existing revenues rather than continually expanding government's ability to keep taxpayer money.
This measure is the legislature asking for more than they have currently defined a need for. Protect education, but also protect TABOR.
Amendment 81 - Law Enforcement Reporting Requirements to Federal Authorities
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Increase public safety by requiring appropriate cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Amendment 81 requires Colorado law enforcement and prosecutors to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in certain serious criminal cases. When someone is charged with a crime of violence or has a previous felony conviction, officials must make a reasonable effort to determine whether that person is lawfully in the United States. If lawful status cannot be established, federal authorities must be notified within 72 hours.
This is not broad immigration enforcement by local police; it focuses on people already involved in serious criminal proceedings. Public safety is a fundamental responsibility of government, and Colorado should not prevent reasonable communication between local, state and federal law enforcement.
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Protects Coloradans’ right to choose natural gas for their homes and businesses.
Amendment 82 creates a constitutional right for consumers to purchase natural gas for cooking and heating and for providers to sell it. The practical effect is to prevent state or local policies from eliminating natural gas as an available energy choice through building codes or similar restrictions. Governments would retain legitimate authority over safety and building standards, but could not use that authority to effectively prohibit natural-gas service.
Colorado's energy policy should encourage innovation and cleaner technologies without forcing families and businesses into a single government-preferred energy source. Natural gas remains affordable, reliable and particularly important during Colorado winters.
Consumers, not politicians, should ultimately decide what energy works for them.
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Protect hunting and fishing from unreasonable restrictions.
Amendment 83 establishes hunting and fishing as constitutional rights in Colorado and recognizes regulated hunting and fishing as preferred tools for managing wildlife populations. It does not eliminate wildlife regulations, authorize trespassing, override private-property rights or prevent the state from establishing seasons, licensing requirements and conservation rules.
Colorado's hunters and anglers have played an enormous role in wildlife conservation, habitat protection and funding wildlife management. Hunting and fishing are also deeply connected to Colorado's rural heritage and way of life. With increasing political pressure on traditional wildlife-management practices, putting these rights in the Constitution provides important long-term protection.
Colorado should preserve our hunting and fishing heritage.
Amendment 84 - Mail Ballot Voter Identification
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Strengthen election security and the individual franchise.
Amendment 84 strengthens identification requirements for Colorado mail ballots. In addition to signing the ballot envelope, voters would provide identifying information such as the last four digits of their Social Security number, Colorado identification number or driver's-license number. Election officials would compare that information with voter records.
If information is missing or cannot be verified, the voter receives an opportunity to correct, or “cure,” the problem before the ballot is rejected.
Requiring basic identification is a reasonable safeguard that does not prevent lawful voters from participating. Secure elections and convenient voting are compatible goals.
Amendment 85 - Plain Language Ballot Questions
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Ensures single standard for ballot measures, both citizen initiaitives and legislative referrals.
Amendment 85 requires Colorado ballot questions to be written in plain language at approximately an eighth-grade reading level. Colorado voters routinely encounter lengthy ballot titles filled with statutory terminology, legal disclaimers and complicated sentence structures that make important policy choices unnecessarily difficult to understand. Voters should not need a law degree to understand what they are being asked to approve.
Government should communicate clearly with the people whose consent it is seeking. Currently citizen initiatives face intense scrutiny and the Title Board process results in generally clear language. This is not the case with measures referred by the legislature. The standard should be the same regardless where the measure originated.
Ballot questions should inform voters, not overwhelm or confuse them.
Amendment 86 - Congressional Redistricting
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Bars politicians from manipulating district lines.
Amendment 86 strengthens protections against changing Colorado's congressional districts between normal census-based redistricting cycles. If an off-cycle congressional map becomes necessary, the Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission would be involved, at least three public hearings would be required, and the Colorado Supreme Court would review the resulting map. Colorado voters previously removed congressional mapmaking from direct partisan legislative control.
Allowing politicians to redraw districts whenever political circumstances become favorable would undermine that reform and encourage the kind of mid-decade gerrymandering occurring elsewhere. Congressional districts should reflect population changes and constitutional requirements, not whichever political party temporarily holds power.
Keep Colorado's redistricting process independent and predictable.
Amendment 87 - Graduated Income Tax
❌ RECOMMENDATION: OPPOSE - Measure is a multibillion-dollar tax increase sold as "fairness."
Amendment 87 eliminates Colorado's constitutional flat-income-tax requirement and creates graduated individual and corporate income-tax rates beginning in 2027. Rates would increase sharply at higher income levels, affecting not only wealthy individuals but many pass-through businesses, farms, ranches and family businesses during unusually profitable years or major asset sales.
The current system with refundable tax credits for low-income families, and add-backs of federal deductions for high earners already has the practical impact of a graduated income tax. This measure claims "fairness" without defining it and somehow ensures that regardless of the outcome on the individual, the state overall takes more in taxes.
Legislative analysts estimate the measure would generate roughly $2 billion annually once fully implemented. Colorado currently benefits from a simple, predictable flat tax. Doubling marginal tax rates on successful taxpayers creates incentives to move investment, businesses and taxable income elsewhere while making Colorado less competitive. Colorado does not need a multibillion-dollar tax increase or a more complicated income-tax system.
Proposition 132 - Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Holds fentanyl dealers accountable.
Proposition 132 increases criminal penalties for certain fentanyl offenses, including moving some crimes from misdemeanors to felonies and increasing consequences for larger quantities and more serious distribution offenses. It also incorporates treatment requirements in some cases, recognizing the distinction between addiction and those who profit from distributing deadly drugs.
Fentanyl has fundamentally changed the danger posed by the illicit drug market because extraordinarily small quantities can kill. Stronger penalties will increase court and prison costs, which Legislative Council estimates could reach tens of millions of dollars over several years. But, the deterrent effect of higher penalties should reduce these impacts.
Treatment should remain available for addiction, while dealers who knowingly distribute fentanyl should face serious consequences. Accountability and treatment can coexist.
Proposition 133 - Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Protects children and punishes traffickers.
Proposition 133 increases human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude from a class 2 felony to a class 1 felony, carrying life imprisonment without parole. It also makes knowingly exchanging money or another thing of value to purchase or sell sexual activity involving a minor part of the trafficking offense.
Legislative analysis indicates relatively few people are convicted of this offense each year, but those who are convicted would serve substantially longer sentences.
Sexually trafficking a child is among the most serious crimes imaginable, and Colorado law should reflect the enormous and lasting harm inflicted on victims. Those who knowingly traffic children for sexual exploitation deserve the strongest criminal penalties available.
Proposition 134 - Male and Female Participation in School Sports
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Protects fairness and dignity in women’s sports.
Proposition 134 requires school and collegiate athletic programs to designate teams as male, female or coeducational based on biological sex. Female teams would be reserved for female athletes. Females could participate on male teams when no corresponding female team exists. The measure applies to public, charter, private and denominational schools as well as public and private colleges, and requires institutions to adopt implementing policies.
Women's athletic categories were created because biological differences between males and females matter in competitive sports. Preserving those categories protects fairness, safety and athletic opportunities that generations of women worked to achieve. Girls and women deserve meaningful, fair opportunities to compete in female athletics.
Proposition 135 - Prohibit Certain Surgeries for Minors
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Protects children from irreversible procedures.
Proposition 135 prohibits health-care professionals from performing surgery on anyone under 18 for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics in response to the minor's perception of sex or gender. It includes an exception for medically verifiable disorders of sex development and prohibits state government and insurance carriers from paying for prohibited surgeries. Importantly, the measure concerns surgical procedures; it does not prohibit counseling or every form of gender-related medical treatment.
Whatever one's broader position on gender identity, irreversible surgical decisions deserve a higher standard when children are involved. Minors should be protected from permanent, life-altering elective procedures until they reach adulthood.
Proposition 136 - Income Tax Rate Cap
✅ RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT - Places a ceiling on Colorado income taxes.
Proposition 136 caps Colorado's individual and corporate income-tax rates at 4.4 percent beginning in 2027. Because 4.4 percent is already the current rate, the measure does not immediately reduce taxes or state revenue. Instead, it creates a protection against raising Colorado income-tax rates above today's level. This is particularly important alongside Amendment 87, which seeks to abandon the flat tax and impose much higher marginal rates.
Colorado should remain competitive for families, entrepreneurs, employers and investment, and government should first address spending priorities, inefficiencies and economic growth before demanding higher income-tax rates. A 4.4 percent ceiling provides taxpayers and businesses greater long-term certainty and fiscal protection.
Proposition 137 - Sporting Goods Sales Tax Revenue for Conservation
❌ RECOMMENDATION: OPPOSE - Spends our TABOR refunds instead of prioritizing conservation within available revenues.
Proposition 137 would dedicate state sales-tax revenue generated from sporting goods and equipment to wildfire prevention, water, parks, wildlife, recreation and conservation programs. These are worthwhile priorities, and the measure does not create a new tax. The problem is fiscal: roughly $176 million annually would be removed from the normal TABOR calculation, permanently earmarked and unavailable for taxpayer refunds or competing state priorities. Good causes do not automatically justify placing additional revenue outside normal budget discipline.
Conservation, wildfire mitigation, water and wildlife management should be appropriately funded through the state budget without continually creating new TABOR-exempt revenue streams.
We can support conservation but need not do so by reducing taxpayer protections and legislative accountability.
Additional information regarding the measures that will be on this year's ballot can be found on the Colorado General Assembly website by following this link.