Policy guide · Colorado, November 3, 2026
Every statewide measure on one card. The front says what it does in plain words. Flip it for what YES and NO mean, what it costs, who's paying for it, and how the official wording compares with what it actually changes.
Facts come from the state's official voter guide (the Blue Book) and news reporting, with sources on every card. Where you see Our take, that's the EchoBridge Initiative's view, from a justice-focused, progressive perspective. We label it so you can tell facts from opinion and decide for yourself.
Explainer
TABOR, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, is part of Colorado's constitution. It decides how much tax money the state can keep, and it means voters, not lawmakers, have the final say on any tax increase. Four of this year's measures turn on it.
Lawmakers can't raise a tax rate on their own. A tax increase has to go on the ballot, and the ballot has to say how much money it would raise.
Each year the amount the state can keep grows only by inflation plus population growth, no matter what the economy or the needs are.
When the state collects more than the cap, it must refund the extra, for example through income or sales tax refunds, unless voters agree to let the state keep it.
Even when there's a need, like schools or prisons in disrepair, lawmakers can't raise taxes or keep extra money without asking voters. One workaround: fees, which lawmakers can raise without a vote.
TABOR requires one income tax rate for everyone. That's why Amendment 87, which would create several rates, has to change the constitution.
In 2005, voters passed Referendum C, a five-year "timeout" that let the state keep more money; it let the state keep about $19.2 billion more over 13 years. Many towns and school districts have voted to keep their extra too, called "de-Brucing."
Through a citizen initiative: anyone who gathers enough signatures can put a measure on the ballot. Colorado Springs attorney and former state Rep. Douglas Bruce championed it. A similar measure he helped run lost in 1988 by 16 points; in 1992 voters approved TABOR with just over 53% of the vote. Because it's in the constitution, only voters can change it.
On this ballot: Prop NN and Prop 137 (keeping money TABOR would refund) · Prop 136 (a rate cap) · Amendment 87 (rates above the flat tax).
Sources: Colorado Legislative Council Staff · Colorado Sun · Colorado Newsline · The TABOR Limit (2026)
Know what to look for
In ballot measures and legislation
Some happen in front of voters. Others happen at the Capitol, in committees and on the calendar, where most laws are made without ever reaching a ballot.
Case study · Florida, 2016
In 2016, Florida voters saw Amendment 1, called “Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice.” It sounded pro-solar. Its backers raised about $21 million, mostly from four power companies: Duke Energy, FPL, TECO and Gulf Power. Owning rooftop solar was already legal; the new part said people without solar shouldn't “subsidize” solar users, which critics said opened the door to new fees. Then a leaked recording caught a policy group's vice president calling the strategy “political jiu-jitsu”: using solar's popularity to sell the measure. It got about 51% of the vote, short of the 60% Florida requires. In Arizona in 2018, the parent company of the state's largest utility spent over $30 million to defeat a renewable-energy measure, the most expensive ballot fight in the state's history at the time. (This story was covered on National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously in 2016.) CBS Miami · Energy and Policy Institute · result · Arizona spending · the TV episode
Solar energy choice. Consumer rights.
About $21 million, mostly from four utilities.
Put an existing right in the constitution, plus language that could justify fees on solar users.
Look for the same pattern this year: a popular word in the title, and donors you can't see.