The Unaffiliated

[ Newsletter from The Colorado Sun ]

THE POLITICAL TICKER

AMENDMENT 87 IMPACTS

The Romer Institute of Evidence-based Policy released its own evaluation of Amendment 87 this week and found mixed evidence in the academic research for the claims made on the campaign trail.

Several studies agree that higher corporate taxes reduce economic growth and investment, although only moderately. Others found either no relationship or the opposite — a small positive relationship between higher corporate tax revenue and personal income growth.

But while taxes may reduce business investment somewhat, there are clear benefits, too: An analysis of more than 30 studies found that increased public spending on K-12 improves educational attainment, with low-income children seeing the largest gains.

On the individual income tax side, studies found that raising taxes on higher earners does lead some households to relocate or find ways to shelter more of their income from state taxes.