The crop of ruling Democrats at the State Capitol might be the first in their party’s history to accept that the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights actually is an indelible part of Colorado’s constitution. It has taken since 1992 — when voters enacted the amendment — but at long last, the party in charge seems to be OK with it.

So long as they can hijack it, of course.

And if hijacking is too harsh a word for the temporary-tax-cut-and-refund package touted last week by legislative Democrats and their party’s standard-bearer, Gov. Jared Polis — it certainly applies to some pieces of the complicated legislation.

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Most notably, the majority party is intent on redistributing this year’s $2 billion TABOR surplus as it sees fit. It doesn’t matter what taxpayers think; never mind that they are constitutionally entitled to a refund of the excess cash collected in taxes by the state.

Sure, the money must be returned — that much is given under TABOR, which requires the state to refund revenue it collects in a given year above the combined rates of inflation and population growth. But there’s wiggle room as to how the money is refunded.

Lawmakers aren’t content just to return it to the general taxpaying public as was once the practice. Instead, they are proposing — once again, as in recent years — to exercise their leeway under the state constitution to create quasi-refunds in the form of tax credits. Those credits go to groups or activities deemed most deserving.

The plan announced last week would divert about $700 million of the pending surplus to low-income Coloradans through an expanded earned-income tax credit and a new “family-affordability” tax credit.

That’s problematic in a couple of ways.

It isn’t fair to the vast majority of taxpayers who helped generate the excess revenue in the first place. Many of them also are of relatively modest means in these inflationary times and could use the money.

It’s also arguably unfair even to the intended beneficiaries of the tax credit. In years when there’s an economic downturn and thus, little or no surplus revenue is collected by the state, the tax credit would go away. That’s when those households that qualify for it need it most.

Which kind of makes the tax credits a gesture in false compassion. After all, if lawmakers really cared, wouldn’t they instead hardwire the credits into the state’s annual operating budget — to be paid for as regular line items — insulating them from economic cycles?

To be fair — and to give credit to the governor — Polis also insisted that an income tax cut be part of last week’s ballyhooed deal. That reflects his long-standing, professed support for income-tax cuts in a state that, regardless of its partisan alignment, likes tax cuts of all kinds.

Understandably, outnumbered legislative Republicans have gotten aboard the tax-cut portion of the package. And the cut is commendable, as far as it goes.

Yet, like the tax credits, the proposed income tax cut is contingent on there being a TABOR surplus to begin with. Worse still, the tax cut won’t kick in unless the surplus tops $300 million. The rate of the cut would vary, depending on the amount by which the surplus exceeds that threshold in any year. This year, the income tax rate would drop to 4.25% from its current 4.4%.

If Polis really cared about easing the tax burden on Colorado’s income earners, wouldn’t he press his fellow Democrats in the Legislature to build the cuts into the budget so they are permanent?

There still would be surpluses in some years. And in lean years with no surplus, maybe the bureaucracy could tighten its belt — for a change — as Colorado’s households always do.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board