Colorado voters to decide on sports betting in 2019 while transportation bond measure is deferred to 2020
Last week, the Colorado legislature approved one measure that will go before voters in 2019 and determined that a second ballot measure, which was originally scheduled for 2019, would instead be decided by voters in 2020.
On Friday, the legislature approved House Bill 1327, which would allow sports betting in the state and authorize the legislature to assess a 10% tax on sports betting proceeds to be paid by those who conduct sports betting operations. Since the measure creates a new tax, it requires voter approval under Colorado’s Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and will appear on the state’s November 2019 ballot.
According to the fiscal impact statement associated with the measure, the new tax is expected to generate $10 million in revenue for the state in the 2020-21 fiscal year. This amount is projected to grow to between $13.5 to 15.2 million in the following year.
The revenue from the sports betting tax would be used to:
- fund expenses related to the administration and regulation of sports betting,
- fund the Water Plan Implementation Cash Fund, and
- operate a gambler's crisis hotline and to fund prevention, education, and treatment of gambling disorders.
The vote to approve the measure was 58-6 in the state House and 27-8 in the state Senate.
Seven states currently have active sports betting industries—Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. Voters in Arkansas approved legalized sports betting through Issue 4 in 2018, and the governors of Indiana and Montana signed legislation this week authorizing sports wagering. In many other states, bills to legalize sports betting have been introduced.
The Colorado legislature also approved a bill last week that moves a legislatively referred bond issue from the 2019 ballot to the 2020 ballot. The bond issue authorizes the state to issue transportation revenue anticipation notes (TRANs)—a specific type of bond debt—in the amount of $1.837 billion with no increase to any taxes.
Of the $1.837 billion, 85% would go to the State Highway Fund, managed by the Colorado Department of Transportation, to fund certain projects that qualify for federal aid. In addition, a quarter of the funds going to the State Highway Fund would be required to be used for projects within counties with a population of 50,000 or less. The remaining 15% of the revenue would go to the Multimodal Transportation Options Fund, which is designed to support the needs of public transportation users, pedestrians, and bicyclists.
Still on Colorado’s 2019 ballot is a measure to allow the state to retain excess revenue it is currently required to refund under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) and use that money for transportation and education. TABOR, which was adopted by voters in 1992, limits increases in state spending to the rate of inflation plus the percentage change in state population in the prior calendar year.
A total of 131 measures appeared on statewide ballots in Colorado from 1995 through 2018. During that time, the approval rate for such measures was 41.2 percent.
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