Democratic state lawmakers voted this week to increase the tax bills of Colorado businesses and business owners by about $150 million to help close a roughly $750 million hole in the state budget .

But they deferred to the governor for perhaps the hardest part of addressing the gap: cutting as much as $300 million in state programs and services.

Those were among the most notable decisions made by lawmakers during a six-day special legislative session to address the effect of tax policy changes made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republican federal tax and spending measure signed by President Donald Trump in July. Because of how Colorado’s state tax code matches the federal tax code , the changes dramatically reduced state revenue starting this fiscal year.

But that wasn’t al

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