The proposal calls for a 10% flat tax on net
sports betting proceeds, which is estimated to
total about $11 million in the next financial year
that starts July 1. State lawmakers passed a bill
earlier this year allowing the Colorado Water
Conservation Board to use that money to award
grants to help meet the state’s water plan.
Democratic House Majority Leader Alec Garnett
is a co-sponsor of the legislation behind the
measure, along with Republican House Minority
Leader Patrick Neville.
Garnett and Neville cited several factors for the
close vote, including voters’ rejection Tuesday
of another tax measure that would have
allowed the state to keep revenue it currently is
obligated to refund to taxpayers.
The betting ballot language didn’t help,
Garnett said.
It read, in part: “Shall state taxes be increased
by twenty-nine million dollars annually to fund
state water projects and commitments and to
pay for the regulation of sports betting. ...”
That language is inspired by the Taxpayer’s Bill
of Rights, a 1992 constitutional amendment
that requires voter approval of any new taxes,
tax increases, revenue retention measures
and bonding.
TABOR is the reason Colorado lawmakers turned
to voters to legalize sports betting rather than
doing it themselves.
“Wecampaigned hard to explain to people that
this is a new tax — but on something that right
now is totally illegal,” said Neville, a strong TABOR
defender who opposed the other measure. “This
was as close as it was because a lot of voters got
the two mixed up.”