Column: Guillot | Colorado has been good to me. I’m asking voters to raise my taxes
Valley Voices
My name is Ron Guillot, and I am a Colorado millionaire. It is awkward to say in print, but it is why I am writing. I would like to ask voters to raise my taxes by voting yes on Amendment 87.
Colorado has a flat 4.4% income tax rate. A retiree on a fixed income, a teacher or police officer, a professional making $200,000 per year, and people like me earning well over $1 million a year all pay that same rate.
A flat rate sounds fair, until you look at what is left over at the end of the day. Working families are stretching every dollar to keep up with rising costs. Someone earning $50,000 feels that 4.4% a lot more than I do, and that is the truth. Add sales taxes, property taxes and fees, all of which take a bigger share of a working family’s budget than mine. And we’re only talking about taxable income here. Higher-income households have more money to invest and pass down to heirs, along with many more options to manage when and how much they pay in taxes, such as holding stocks, real estate or business interests that aren’t taxed until they’re sold. The more money I earn, the more I’ve realized how easy it is for rich people to earn money and avoid paying taxes.
In aggregate, top earners end up paying a smaller share of their income in taxes than most of our fellow citizens. This isn’t a criticism of top earners. It’s a criticism of a flat rate system that holds down the people who most need help. Amendment 87 makes a modest change by returning us to the graduated system we had before 1987, opening the door to opportunity wider.
Under Amendment 87, anyone earning under $500,000 per year, which is about 97% of Colorado taxpayers, would get a tax cut. That’s more money in their pockets, for once, and money that will go back into the Colorado economy. A recent columnist in these pages remarked that lower-income earners should “try not to blow it all on Starbucks,” a comment I find cynical and judgmental. Amendment 87 is about resetting the balance.
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I’ve worked in health care for more than 35 years, including time investing in and building companies that bring care to patients inside and outside of hospitals. I’ve seen the strain millions face, one accident away from bankruptcy. This year, due to increased need and federal cuts, Medicaid is projected to run $443 million over budget. Those cuts will make it even more likely that people fall through the cracks.
Amendment 87 changes that course, with an estimated $2 billion a year in new revenue dedicated to health care, K-12 education and child care.
Some say people like me will leave if Colorado returns to a graduated income tax, one that 28 other states already use. I moved to Denver from New Orleans in 1990, and Colorado is my promised land, a land I won’t leave until I die. If income tax were a major concern, I’d move to Wyoming, a state with no income tax. Lifestyle, education, culture and creating opportunity for fellow citizens matter more to me than my tax rate.
Massachusetts heard the same warnings before voters approved a tax on income over $1 million in 2022. The tax brought in about $2.46 billion in its first full year, and the number of millionaires living in the state grew after it passed.
Colorado is a fabulous state, although there’s more work to do. Don’t we want to hire and pay the best teachers, provide parents with affordable child care, and make sure our rural hospitals remain open? As a millionaire in Colorado, I want our tax system to help everyone willing to work for a better life.
Amendment 87 is a smart step, and I will be voting yes. Proposition 136, also on the ballot, would lock our broken tax system in place forever. I call it the Millionaire Protection Act. Millionaires don’t need protection, but our state’s future does. Let’s reset the balance for all citizens so we can make our fabulous state exceptional.
Ron Guillot is a health care executive, non-profit board member, investor and husband and father who calls Colorado his promised land.
