Everyone has a stake in defeating Proposition HH, especially small businesses, and a big reason for that is personal – literally.

Most small business owners file their taxes as individuals at the individual tax rates, not as corporations at the corporate tax rates, so they’re eligible for TABOR refunds, the same as everyone else. When they get the refund check, Main Street job-creators and mom-and-pop shops typically reinvest the extra money right back in the business.

For more than 30 years, thanks to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), Colorado has given them a refund every time the state takes in more than it spends. Maybe that’s what secretly irritates the anti-TABOR forces the most: It delivers on what it promised, and continues to do so. How many initiatives can claim that?

The political class is now trying to repeal TABOR via Proposition HH, which is on the November ballot. This foolish proposal reflects politicians’ belief that they deserve more of your money with every passing year. They don’t. And they never will. Your money is yours and it should stay that way.

According to them, Prop HH would still give you your money back. But that’s a gross misdirection, bordering on a lie. Sure, families would get property tax relief, but that’s only temporary. And every year, the state would get a bigger portion of TABOR refunds, until they disappear entirely.

Whereas other business associations have opted to take a more cautious approach on the issue, if any approach at all, the state’s leading small business association, NFIB, decided to get pugnacious by recently launching a multi-media campaign against Prop HH. It had to. For some of its members, it’s a matter of survival.

Small businesses already face a bigger tax burden than big businesses. If Prop HH passes, the chasm will grow even wider, hurting Main Street’s ability to grow and give back.

Are there some legitimate criticisms against TABOR and a better way to spend the people’s money? You wouldn’t know it from the way Prop HH came about, as the Issue Sheet of NFIB’s online campaign against the initiative points out, “Legislation for Prop HH was passed in the final 72 hours of the 2023 legislative session without public knowledge or input. Tax-and-spend state legislators want to use Prop HH to raid Coloradans’ TABOR refunds under the guise of a property tax cut that is both negligible and temporary.”

Stay up to speed: Sign-up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

In other words, politicians are trying to pull a fast one. Prop HH is a bait-and-switch. They are hiding their true intention, which is to gobble up money that isn’t theirs, while depriving taxpayers and small business owners of money that’s rightfully theirs.

Small businesses overwhelmingly oppose Prop HH, with 90% of NFIB members promising to vote no. They want to keep reinvesting their TABOR refunds into their workers, operations and communities. The last thing they want is to send even more money to Denver.

What starts with Prop HH won’t end there. Once politicians start getting more money, they’ll start spending it, and once they do, they won’t stop. They’ll constantly grow the size and scope of government, which in turn, will require even more taxpayer money.

We shouldn’t give politicians a free pass to grow government. We should empower small businesses and families to grow our economy and communities. That’s exactly what TABOR does. And it helps explain why Colorado is booming. Small businesses and families always know how to spend their money better than politicians.

Tony Gagliardi is Colorado state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.