Before Republicans uncork their cellared casks of Reposado Tequila, they may want to take a closer look at Colorado’s election results. Yes, Governor-elect Youngkin secured a victory in Virginia and conservatives captured several school board majorities in blood-red counties, but it appears voters are no longer casting ballots to slash their own taxes. Perhaps even more surprising is the failure of Proposition 119 which rounded up fulsome endorsements from every living, former Colorado Governor on behalf of a 33% increase in marijuana sales taxes for tutoring grants.

Socking it to marijuana users has proven a reliable ask of Colorado voters in recent years, yet they firmly rejected this scheme.

The biggest loser was Michael Fields, executive director of Colorado Rising Action. He placed both Proposition 120, capping property taxes, and Amendment 78, transferring responsibility for distributing federal funds from the Governor’s office and Executive branch agencies to the Legislature and its Joint Budget Committee (JBC). They failed despite generous dark-money support funneled from the Koch brothers’ network through Americans for Prosperity.

These initiatives were expected to be slam-dunk winners, but voters rejected both handily. There is irony in the fact that Colorado Governor Jared Polis, presumably in an attempt to ingratiate himself with taxpayers, endorsed the property tax cut proffered in Prop 120. He had already angered many Democrats with his suggestion that Colorado would be better off jettisoning its income tax. Now we’ve learned from Pro Publica that this would move his state tax obligation in line with a reported personal record of ducking federal income taxes entirely.

Tax cut questions have been used by Republicans for decades to drive out their base voters. Yet, if they can’t drum up a majority for property tax relief in an off-year election, chances appear dismal for cuts in 2022. It’s unlikely conservative funders are willing to throw additional dollars at what seems a dry hole. Don’t be surprised, however, if we witness attempts to place culture war shibboleths on the ballot instead.

TABOR critics have to be encouraged by this year’s election results. This raises the potential for a tax policy squabble pitting the Governor against progressive Democrats in the Legislature. If cooler heads prevail, this battle will be postponed until 2023. Intramural slugfests offer few benefits during election years. Nonetheless, it was the two Senate Democrats serving on the JBC, Chris Hansen of Denver and Dominic Moreno of Adams County, who wrote in September, “In Colorado … there’s a problem. We have a major obstacle that is keeping us from truly building back better: the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).”

Thirty years since the original voter approval of TABOR, the Legislature has grown inventive in evading its constitutional constraints. The proliferation of TABOR enterprises together with creative budget gimmickry, including a proliferation of fees, has reduced the portion of the budget subject to TABOR’s spending and revenue strictures from two-thirds to less than half of the state budget. We can expect further shrinkage of the TABOR share. The downside is that fiscal control may become increasingly difficult as state government evolves from a hierarchy into a feudal system of quasi-independent fiscal principalities.

COVID relief and American Rescue Plan funding from Congress has papered over serious structural shortfalls in recent budgets. Hansen and Moreno also pointed out that, “despite the money received from the federal government, Colorado remains paralyzed by the most restrictive tax system in the entire country … by our estimates the state government remains approximately $40 billion dollars short of adequately funding state programs, infrastructure and services since 1993 – all because of TABOR.”

Proposition 120 was particularly problematic because it proposed to place state restrictions on a revenue source primarily assigned, with minor exceptions, to funding local units of government. Provisions in TABOR produce disparate impact on Colorado communities, adversely undermining revenues for rural governments and school districts. Hansen plans to introduce a 2022 referred measure that will require property tax questions only be voted on by the residents within each taxing district, blocking statewide overrides. Councilwoman-at-large Robin Kniech has raised a similar concern in Denver County.

This is not to say there aren’t property tax issues that remain to be tackled. The senior property tax exemption has essentially collapsed as a mechanism of substantive relief for seniors. An extensive retooling is needed. The $200,000 limit on eligible value has long since been overtaken by average market prices twice that. Both Sen. Hansen and Republican Bob Rankin would like to refer a comprehensive reform to voters next year. Without portability, the current system traps seniors in homes they would prefer to sell and that young families would like to purchase. This dilemma is clearly a bipartisan concern.

It was encouraging that Colorado voters rejected these initiatives, but I suspect voters are tiring of ballot box policy debates.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.