Black Swan

Progressive income tax means a more volatile Colorado budget

Nash Herman November 25, 2025

Under a progressive tax the state budget will be more even prone to ‘black swan’ events.

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Ep. 202 - Luke Hilgemann - Devil's Advocate

What would Teddy Roosevelt do? Would he want a right to hunt and fish? Well, Luke Hilgemann from the International Order of Teddy Roosevelt channels the former president.

34:38

Could Colorado Hunting Bans Backfire?

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Weld County Commissioner Scott James joins PowerGab Host Amy Cooke to discuss a recent divided vote on a wind and solar facility and the need for data centers, as well as other topics.

Show Notes:
Chalk Bluffs: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/commissioners-approve-1-67b-energy-development-in-north-weld-county/ar-AA2cTTKq
Data Center: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/in-your-community/northern-colorado/weld-county-commissioners-approve-proposed-41-acre-data-center
Xcel and PUC have problems: https://www.denverpost.com/2026/09/26/xcel-power-outages-colorado/
Offer to Phil Weiser: https://x.com/TheRightAOC/status/2104340275447648478

31:20

PowerGab Ep132 - Data Center Necessity

YouTube Video UEwyN1JnNDNac3N0Q1RlbGdMaEU5Z0gwUjVuV0pMM1l6OC4wQjA4QkVEQ0RFREIzMjFC

What happens when a child shows signs of dyslexia but their reading scores are too high to qualify for additional support?

Some children with dyslexia develop strong vocabulary and other skills that can mask their reading difficulties, allowing them to score above the threshold for a READ plan. As a result, parents may be left wondering why their child is struggling despite seemingly acceptable test scores.

On this episode of Learning Curve, hosts Erin Brantley and Ross Izard talk with cofounders of CO Kid about Colorado's new dyslexia screening requirements under SB25-200 and why early identification matters.

They explain how expanded screening could help identify children who might otherwise slip through the cracks, giving parents valuable information about their child's reading development—even when their child doesn't qualify for a formal intervention plan.

Because every parent deserves to understand why their child is struggling.

🎧 Watch the full episode of Learning Curve for more on Colorado's dyslexia legislation, parental rights, and the fight to improve literacy outcomes.

🔗 Learn more about CO Kid: https://cokid.org

#LearningCurve #DyslexiaAwareness #ColoradoEducation #EarlyLiteracy #ParentalRights #ReadingIntervention #Education

25:06

Your Child Is Struggling… But Doesn't Qualify for Help

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Amendment 81 – Law Enforcement Reporting Requirements to Federal Authorities

Recommendation: YES

In essence, the purpose of this is to assist the Dept. of Homeland Security and ICE in doing their jobs. It would allow Colorado law enforcement agencies to cooperate with DHS and ICE when a person charged with a violent crime or with a prior felony conviction has an unverified immigration status. Currently, Colorado’s “sanctuary” policies handcuff police and sheriffs from doing so. If this passes it could result in outlawing sanctuary policies that protect illegal aliens and obstruct ICE.

Amendment 82 – Right to Natural Gas

Recommendation: YES

Common sense to curb anti-fossil fuel radicals.

Amendment 83 – Constitutional Right to Hunt & Fish

Recommendation: YES

Of course.

Amendment 84 – Mail Ballot Voter Identification

Recommendation: YES

Requires mail voters to provide a signature and identification number. Discriminates against illegal voters, so progressives will call it racist.

Amendment 85 – Plain-Language Ballot Questions

Recommendation: YES

Requires all ballot questions to be written in understandable language (not lawyer jargon) at no more than an 8th grade reading level. Good idea, even if most Denver Public Schools grads still wouldn’t understand it.

Amendment 86 – Congressional Redistricting

Recommendation: YES

Would prohibit congressional redistricting unless approved by the Congressional Redistricting Commission and the Supreme Court.

Amendment 87 – Graduated Income Tax

Recommendation: NO

Would replace Colorado’s flat income tax, in place since 1987, with progressive income tax rates. Ever since Democrats gained one-party rule in Colorado, government spending has been spiraling out of control. Facing huge budget deficits, this is yet another tax increase, and a mammoth one at that, driving an additional 2.7 billion dollars a-year flowing into government coffers and none of it subject to TABOR refunds. With this measure, Democrats are buying the votes of taxpayers in lower brackets with a slight tax decrease, while lowering the boom on individuals and corporations with incomes over $500,000, almost doubling their tax rates to as much as 8.4%. (Since the tax brackets won’t be adjusted for inflation, as federal tax rates are, “bracket creep” would automatically raise taxes on everyone each year.) As has happened in other Democrat-controlled states and cities, this will drive even more successful, taxpaying individuals and businesses out of Colorado, depriving us of any of their tax revenue, innovations, talent, and charitable contributions.

Proposition NN – State Public K-12 Education Funding

Recommendation: NONO

Another scheme to drive up government spending and reduce TABOR refunds. Some of it’s earmarked for public schools, so “it’s for the kids.” (Code for: it’s for the teacher unions.)

Proposition 132 – Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes

Recommendation: YES

Discourages fentanyl sales, use, and related felonies; stiffens sentences.

Proposition 133 – Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor

Recommendation: YES

Would further deter this heinous crime by expanding the definition of trafficking and increasing the penalty to life imprisonment.

Proposition 134 – Male and Female Participation in School Sports

Recommendation: YES

Restricts participation on sports teams to members of the same biological sex, except for teams specifically designated as co-ed. This will protect girls from physical injury and loss of opportunity by bigger and stronger boys.

Proposition 135 – Prohibit Certain Surgeries for Minors

Recommendation: YES

Prohibits sex reassignment surgeries on minors and bans government funding. Troubled kids lack the maturity to make this irreversible choice and should be protected from irresponsible parents who would allow it. At least, they can wait till they’re 18.

Proposition 136 – Income Tax Rate Cap

Recommendation: YES

This is the antidote for Amendment 87 (“Graduated Income Tax,” above). Prop 136 would cap the individual and corporate income tax rate at the current level of 4.4% for all. With both measures on the ballot, if they both pass and Prop 136 gets more YES votes than Amendment 87, the top tax rate stays capped at 4.4%, but Amendment 87’s slightly lower tax rates under $100,000 of income would nonetheless take effect. If Amendment 87 gets more YES votes than Prop 136, then nothing in Prop 136 takes effect and all of Amendment 87’s measures take effect, especially its top rate of 8.4%. All the more reason to vote for Prop 136.

Proposition 137 – Designate Sporting Goods Sales Tax Revenue for Conservation

Recommendation: NO

Another nitpicking sales tax. We have too many of those already.

Ballot Measures for the People’s Democrat Socialist Republic of Denver.

Recommendation: NO on all

Denver voters are about to elect a communist to the U.S. House of Representatives. Anything sensible on the ballot will lose anyway.

Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.

Mike Rosen’s 2026 Colorado election ballot measure picks

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Black Swan

Progressive income tax means a more volatile Colorado budget

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