July 25, 2025 10:36 AM UTC

Local Republicans Demand Maximum Pain While Trump Screws Colorado

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s Seth Klamann reports, one of the state’s well-funded conservative advocacy groups has teamed up with a presumptive Republican candidate for governor to jam Colorado’s Democratic-controlled majority in their attempt to reduce the harm from the recently-passed “We’re All Going To Die Act” federal budget bill:

A conservative advocacy group and a state senator sued Gov. Jared Polis and the head of Colorado’s tax agency Thursday, alleging that recent legislation requiring the continued taxing of overtime pay — in the face of federal changes — violates the state constitution.

The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, argues that House Bill 1296 violates the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which requires voter approval before the state can levy new taxes. HB-1296, which Polis signed into law in May, requires the state to continue taxing overtime starting next year — and it was passed in anticipation of a provision in Congress’ tax bill this month that will temporarily allow workers to deduct a large portion of overtime from their federal taxes.

Colorado’s law was drafted as federal debates about cutting taxes on overtime — a campaign promise by President Donald Trump — were developing. Now lawmakers are grappling with the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to state funding resulting from the final tax bill…

That’s hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts before we talk about what the impact of this lawsuit would be on the state’s already imperiled budget, estimated to be another $400 million. The legislation passed this year does not impose any new tax on overtime wages, simply changing the way they are deducted to ensure the state’s much smaller cut continues to be collected after the federal government allowed $12,500 in overtime pay per taxpayer to be deducted.

So the real problem Republicans have, to be clear, is that Colorado declined to join the federal government in allowing overtime to be deducted. Because Colorado can’t afford it. There is perhaps no group of people in the state more aware of Colorado’s precarious financial situation–precarious long before the Trump budget’s sweeping cuts–than members of the Colorado General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee.

The problem is, the ranking JBC Republican has designs on higher office in 2026. And for Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, that means placing politics before good policy:

The new suit, which Democrats dismissed as a political stunt, was filed by Advance Colorado and Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, as well as by a Fremont County commissioner, Kevin Grantham — a former Senate president — and two Coloradans who receive overtime pay.

Income declared on earners’ state tax return is typically influenced by what is on their federal tax forms. The suit alleges that restarting the overtime taxation at the state level constitutes the creation of new revenue, which would require voter approval, and it asks a judge to invalidate the law.

Sen. Kirkmeyer claims that because the state “added back on” the state income tax on overtime after Republicans created the federal deduction that would have reduced or eliminated it, it’s a violation of the state’s pernicious so-called “Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.” But because all the legislature did was ensure the existing state tax continues to be collected, Democrats say it’s not–and the change was necessary to prevent even more local fiscal harm than what’s already coming.

Kirkmeyer understands that notwithstanding the much-hyped overtime deduction provision the federal budget bill is extremely unpopular with voters, who are fully aware of the relationship between federal budget cuts and their effect on local policy. Republicans face an impossible task in Colorado to convince a majority of voters that not only is the unpopular federal budget bill actually good, but state-level Democrats should take the blame for the actions of Republicans in Washington, D.C. This leaves local Republicans with very little to work with in terms of self-defense, and this finger-pointing over efforts to reduce the harm done to Colorado’s budget without the consent of Colorado lawmakers is the result.

Shelby Wieman, a spokeswoman for Polis, declined to comment on the merits of the lawsuit.

But, she added in a statement, “one thing is for certain: the impacts of the President’s big, bad bill, which is backed by Senator Kirkmeyer, will kick people off their health care and raise costs on everyone. Just last week insurance companies announced premium increases of 28% because of non-renewal of credits in the big bad bill.” [Pols emphasis]

For Democrats, the message remains very simple: Republicans like Barb Kirkmeyer did this. Every difficult choice made by the state is happening because Republicans like Barb Kirkmeyer wanted it to happen. There is not enough political advantage to be reaped in grandstanding over the state income tax on overtime pay to compensate for the damage being to the Republican brand from the Trump budget bill.

So go right on protesting your own guilt, Senator.