Report: GOP Tax Plan Would Increase Economic Inequality in Colorado

By: Eric Galatas, Public News Service – CO

DENVER – The top 1 percent of taxpayers are set to get big tax cuts under the Republican tax proposal, but middle and upper middle income earners in Colorado will end up paying more, according to a new 50-state analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Ali Mickelson, director of tax and legislative policy for the Colorado Fiscal Institute, says the plan would increase economic inequality in the state, and notes Colorado’s wealthiest residents already are paying a lower percentage of their income in taxes than the state’s lowest income families.

“We already have this income inequality issue facing Colorado families,” she states. “And as this report reveals, the president’s tax plan widens that income gap instead of narrowing it.”

Mickelson says nearly 60 percent of the benefits of the tax proposal would go to Coloradans making more than $500,000 a year, while only 12 percent would go to families who earn $70,000 or less.

GOP leaders promise that once the details are added into their initial framework, America’s middle class will see benefits.

Preliminary analysis by the conservative Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects the plan would result in a loss of up to $5 trillion in tax revenues over the next 10 years.

Mickelson notes that since the proposal doesn’t explain how the tax cuts will be paid for, important social programs frequently targeted by Republican lawmakers such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could end up taking a hit.

“So that means that either the tax cuts are going to significantly increase the deficit, or they’re going to put a bunch of pressure on Congress to cut programs that Colorado families depend on to offset the cost of cuts,” she points out.

Mickelson says while upper middle income Coloradans are the most likely to be writing bigger checks to the IRS, all workers earning at least $25,000 a year could end up paying more.

The average tax cut for people who take home $1 million or more annually would be more than $170,000.