The Colorado General Assembly is currently considering a slew of taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. increases. The proposals, mostly targeting specific products, are a result of low revenue collections over the last couple of years combined with the political unpopularity of broad based tax increases. But there are problems with many of the proposals. Several of the bills would extend the retail sales taxA sales tax is levied on retail sales of goods and services and, ideally, should apply to all final consumption with few exemptions. Many governments exempt goods like groceries; base broadening, such as including groceries, could keep rates lower. A sales tax should exempt business-to-business transactions which, when taxed, cause tax pyramiding. to business-to-business transactions, which is universally acknowledged by tax experts as an economically damaging policy. Lawmakers are also trying to pass an “Amazon tax.”
Read more about the proposals in Fiscal Fact No. 208, “Handful of Proposals Would Push Colorado Away From the Proper Tax Base”.
Taxes should be used to raise revenue for essential government services, not punish certain taxpayer and reward others. If the services that Colorado is providing to its citizens are not worth paying for with broad-based taxes, then maybe they should reconsider their spending priorities.
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