Just three years ago, Coloradans were receiving $750 TABOR refund checks in the mail because the state had a surplus of $3.6 billion. Now, legislators are being called back to the Capitol for a special session to deal with a $783 million deficit. The contrast couldn’t be starker.

The good news is that the budget deficit is essentially money going back into the pockets of hard-working Coloradans. About $460 million of it comes from individual income tax relief — with at least $290 million of that coming from 2025 tax breaks on overtime. The rest of the money is going to cut taxes for businesses — many of them small and family-owned — that create jobs and keep the cost of living lower. When you hear liberals say they have to cover a “deficit,” remember that the reality is people are getting their money back — and that’s better than the government spending it.

Keep in mind that Colorado’s budget isn’t small, and it hasn’t grown slowly. The 2025 budget was a whopping $44 billion. What’s more, the budget has grown 50% over the last five years. Cutting $783 million from a $44 billion budget means cutting less than 3%. How many families have sat around kitchen tables in Colorado, deciding how to cut 3% or more from their budget to make ends meet with our high cost of living. None of these working families got to “raise revenue” from someone else to pay their expenses. They had to get serious, trim spending and fix their budgets. Somehow, the legislature and the governor think this is too much to ask of the state government.

So, what happened between 2022 and today? How did we get here?

Simply put, Colorado continued to get worse on many of the metrics that matter. Our cost of doing business has risen; we’re now ranked 38th in the nation. CNBC ranks Colorado’s cost of living as the third highest in the nation and gives us an “F.”

Our population growth has fallen 53% over the last decade. According to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, Colorado had the highest rate of inflation in the nation from 2021-2024. U.S. News & World Report rated Colorado the second most dangerous state in the nation. Recently, we’ve risen to the top of nearly all the bad lists, reaching number one in auto thefts, cocaine use and bank robberies. Liberal policies have created much of this and made all of it worse. Good, hardworking people are simply being chased out of the state.

We can look at sales tax for another clue. The city of Denver has a $250 million budget hole, largely due to sales tax collection being lower — and not because the city cuts taxes. It’s because fewer people are choosing to spend their money in Denver. Colorado, overall, had a nearly 2% decline in inflation-adjusted and population-adjusted sales tax — significantly worse than neighboring states such as Utah and Wyoming (which had over 4% growth in adjusted sales tax).

We can also see that the state government has a spending problem. The state is spending our money faster than it can bring it in. From 2010 to 2025, Colorado’s general fund spending increased 134%. Rather than acknowledging this level of spending spikes is irresponsible and unsustainable, liberal leaders are blaming federal tax cuts for causing budget gaps.

A few examples of government overspending and waste include $628 million in grants to nongovernmental organizations over the last 10 years (tripling in the last three years under Gov. Jared Polis); $9 million in film grants; $1.5 million in video game grants; $3 million in the marijuana entrepreneurs fund; $4 million in grants to Aspen-based companies and organizations, and 600-700 new full-time state employees in the Polis administration.

It’s no wonder revenue is down. It’s harder for businesses to survive here, and despite the liberals’ desire to constantly blame the federal government, many of our problems are unique to Colorado. Not every state budgets so poorly and then blames someone else for the results.

TABOR, our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, is unique to Colorado, and it’s receiving a special amount of anger from elected liberals. (Over 70% of Coloradans support TABOR.) State Sen. Jeff Bridges, chairman of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, constantly claims TABOR is the reason why Colorado can’t afford the liberal priorities in the budget. The chair of the Colorado Democrats tried to blame the Republicans in Congress along with TABOR for “robbing” Coloradans. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “TABOR robs CO of fully funded schools, great roads, and good services …” During the special session, you’re going to hear that the federal government and TABOR took your refunds and your tax credits away.

But Coloradans aren’t so easily deceived. These TABOR-blaming claims are coming from the same politicians who tried to remove future TABOR refunds from the people with Prop CC and Prop HH (which were both soundly defeated at the ballot box).

What’s more, their TABOR claims aren’t accurate. The tax credits these liberals are referring to include the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is only given out when we have TABOR surpluses. Apparently, this tax credit was important enough to them when they could take the funds from TABOR money, but not when it would have to come out of their own general fund budget. Months before the special session was announced — and before HR1 was passed — state data accurately showed that there would be no TABOR refunds this year. There was never going to be the Earned Income Tax Credit, either. The budget surplus was completely blown well before the federal tax bill was passed.

It’s convenient to cry wolf and blame the federal government, but it’s liberals’ decisions that are eliminating tax credits from families. And that’s not all. They’ve intentionally taxed working families even more. HB25-1296, passed in the regular legislative session, ensured that, regardless of the federal tax break on overtime pay, Colorado will continue to tax overtime starting back up in 2026. This is a tax increase that violates TABOR, and Advance Colorado, along with state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham, have brought a lawsuit against it.

Prior to the special session announcement, reports indicated the legislature planned to speed up taxes on overtime and add tips to the bill, charging working families this year. Thankfully, when their plans were exposed, people got active, contacting their legislators and the governor, and the plan to tax working families even more was scrapped.

Since the state can’t manage its ballooning budget, it prefers to make working families pay, but when that doesn’t work, it turns to the businesses that employ them. There’s a specific plan to “raise revenue” (i.e., increase taxes) on Colorado businesses during the special session. We can expect our ranking of 38th in the nation in the cost to do business to fall lower next year. These same businesses that are being targeted by the governor are the ones employing Coloradans, creating jobs, and generating sales tax.

Policies have consequences, and state policies have led us to this moment. But despite the mess liberal politicians have created for us, there’s always hope that we can make things better. Colorado is a great state. Our workforce is ranked the seventh best in the nation.

What the people need is responsible elected officials who can acknowledge their fault in how we got to this point.

After admitting what they did to cause the crisis, our leaders should stop bashing TABOR and work to protect it; it’s what the people want. No same-year tax change should be passed during the special session (that’s a violation of TABOR), and any 2026 change must be sent to voters.

Legislators also should reverse their anti-business policies so we don’t run deficits; they should manage the budget more realistically; they must enact pro-growth policies that don’t lead to revenue shortfalls.

Lawmakers should conduct a line-by-line review of the state government spending to identify and cut excessive and wasteful spending of taxpayers’ dollars. The state must examine how it can be more efficient with taxpayer dollars rather than calling for more revenue to feed the beast.

Ultimately, the goal should be to create more opportunity for more Coloradans. Now is the time to start.

Michael Fields is the president of Advance Colorado.