PAID FAMILY LEAVE
Did TABOR violations occur? Court to hear claim
By Shelly Bradbury
The Denver Post
The Colorado Supreme Court next week will consider whether the state’s fledgling family and medical leave program violates the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights amendment to the Colorado Constitution.
The legal challenge, to be argued on Tuesday, focuses on funding for the newly voter-approved program, which will, beginning in 2024, offer up to 12 weeks of paid time off to most Colorado workers who are either sick or caring for their newborns or seriously ill family members.
Also known as Proposition 118, the $1.2 billion program was approved in 2020 by voters in a 57% to 43% vote.
The state will begin funding the program in January 2023 by collecting between 0.45% and 0.9% of employees’ annual pay from employees and their employers, with some exceptions.
That premium could be increased to as much as 1.2% of wages after 2025.
Those premiums are at the center of the legal challenge by Chronos Builders, a Grand Junction homebuilding company, which argues the fees are surcharges on income that violate TABOR, which requires that all income “be taxed at one rate … with no added tax or surcharge.” Continue reading