As new tax credits reroute money from budget, lawmakers brace for less certain budget growth

Even as Colorado enacts drastic changes to its tax policy, economic forecasters still expect the state to hit the constitutional cap on revenue collections in coming years.

But, the state could flirt with falling below the cap, set by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, for the first time in half a decade during the adjustment period. The TABOR cap grows based on population growth and inflation, and money collected over it needs to be refunded to taxpayers.

Greg Sobetski, the chief economist for the Legislative Council Staff, didn’t raise any red flags during a forecast Thursday but acknowledged “a new set of budget circumstances” for state officials to navigate after years of explosive growth in state revenues. That growth resulted in billions of dollars being refunded to taxpayers in recent years, most notably through direct payments in fall 2022 and through tax returns this year.

Lawmakers this past legislative session, however, passed more than 30 bills either adjusting or creating new tax credits, according to a tally by the governor’s office. They include expansions to the earned income tax credit for the lowest-income Coloradans, senior housing tax credits and, if certain economic triggers are met, a new credit potentially worth thousands of dollars to families.

Collectively, the credits will reroute hundreds of millions of dollars — if not more than a billion — per year in coming years from state coffers, though it still ends up Coloradans’ wallets. In the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the credits could also push state revenues below the TABOR cap. Economists for the legislative branch and governor’s office both expect revenue to remain above the cap, but Sobetskis’s office, in particular, warned a routine margin of error that comes with predicting the future could drop that below the TABOR cap.

Legislative forecasters expect $1.4 billion in revenue collected above the revenue cap this fiscal year, which ends July 1, will need to be refunded. They expect it to drop to about $328 million next fiscal year before bouncing back to $1 billion-plus for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2025.

“Even without a recession, you could end up in an environment, easily, within the realm of normal forecast error where state revenue is under the (TABOR) cap,” Sobetski said.

Forecasters for the governor’s office were more optimistic and still expect nearly $700 million in money over the cap will need to be refunded for the next fiscal year. Exact TABOR refunds for the upcoming tax year won’t be set for months still and depend on future forecasts.

Overall, forecasters expected continued economic growth and lower chances of a recession in the immediate term. But, economic activity is being stymied by persistently high interest rates. State economists had originally expected multiple interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year, and when those didn’t materialize, they revised state economic growth expectations down, Sobetski said.

“Because we’re expecting interest rate cuts to happen later, we’re not expecting the interest rates to accelerate as quickly,” he said.

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