A citizen-initiated amendment to amend article IX, section 17 to change the financing of public schools in Colorado.
Amendment 73 was designed to do the following:
Increase income taxes for individuals with income above $150,000 per year according to a bracket system rather than a flat tax rate;
Increase the corporate tax rate from 4.63 percent to 6 percent;
Reduce residential and nonresidential property tax rates,
Create a fund (called the Quality Public Education Fund) dedicated to public education from revenue generated by tax increases, and
Mandate certain actions by the legislature regarding the fund and implementation.
It was also designed to change state statutes to provide details concerning the implementation of the tax increases and the public education fund.
The measure specifies that money appropriated for education from the fund must be used in addition to, not instead of, the amount of money appropriated for education from the state's general fund.
Shall state taxes be increased $1,600,000,000 annually by an amendment to the Colorado constitution and a change to the Colorado revised statutes concerning funding relating to preschool through high school public education, and, in connection therewith, creating an exception to the single rate state income tax for revenue that is dedicated to the funding of public schools; increasing income tax rates incrementally for individuals, trusts, and estates using four tax brackets starting at .37% for income above $150,000 and increasing to 3.62% for income above $500,000; increasing the corporate income tax rate by 1.37%; for purposes of school district property taxes, reducing the current residential assessment rate of 7.2% to 7.0% and the current nonresidential assessment rate of 29% to 24%; requiring the revenue from the income tax increases to be deposited in a dedicated public education fund and allowing the revenue collected to be retained and spent as voter-approved revenue changes; requiring the legislature to annually appropriate money from the fund to school districts to support early childhood through high school public educational programs on an equitable basis throughout the state without decreasing general fund appropriations; directing the legislature to enact, regularly review, and revise when necessary, a new public school finance law that meets specified criteria; until the legislature has enacted a new public school finance law, requiring the money in the fund to be annually appropriated for specified education programs and purposes; requiring the money in the fund to be used to support only public schools; requiring general fund appropriations for public education to increase by inflation, up to 5%, annually; and requiring the department of education to commission a study of the use of the money in the fund within five years?