A year after fiscal deal, Colorado may owe taxpayer refunds

DENVER — In a stunning turn from this time a year ago, Colorado’s state coffers are suddenly so flush with cash that lawmakers may be required to send more than $200 million back to taxpayers over the next three years.

For Democrats, it’s vindication for a deal struck in 2017 to exempt a state hospital fee from the state’s revenue cap — a deal that was supposed to clear out so much room under the cap that the state budget would have room to grow for years to come without sending any of it back to taxpayers.

Without the new law, Colorado would have owed taxpayers significantly more. And lawmakers never would have been able to afford the sizeable investments in schools, roads and the public pension that turned the 2018 legislative session into a success for leaders in both parties.

But for fiscal conservatives who opposed the maneuver, an unexpected revenue windfall generated by federal tax changes and a rebounding oil and gas sector makes last year’s spending deal even worse than they had imagined at the time.

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/07/16/fiscal-deal-colorado-taxpayer-refunds/