GUEST OPINION: Graduated tax pushes back on growing inequality – Denver Gazette

GUEST OPINION: Graduated tax pushes back on growing inequality  Denver Gazette

Graduated income taxes are far from radical. They’re used in 28 other states, including 11 red states. Colorado is the outlier as one of only 14 states that still uses a flat income tax. When you don’t have the facts on your side, a tried and true political tactic is to engage in fearmongering and create so much smoke that the truth becomes the first casualty. That’s exactly what Michael Fields, president of Advance Colorado, has attempted to do in his op-ed defaming the graduated income tax measure – now Amendment 87 – that will be on the November ballot. The central problem for him is that the policy is popular, with seven out of 10 voters believing we need a fairer tax code where the wealthy pay their share.

Amendment 87, the Income Tax Fairness Act, cuts taxes for the 97 percent of Coloradans making less than $500,000 a year, including seniors, veterans, and small businesses and only raises taxes on wealthy individuals and large corporations making more to bring in an estimated $2 billion annually for much-needed healthcare, childcare and K-12. It would also take a big step toward making our tax system fairer. And if this sounds too good to be true, let me just point out that the average income of the top 3 percent of