Despite a $10 million campaign cash advantage for tax hike proponents which was aided by out-of-state money from the likes of Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, last night Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected Amendment 66 by a 2 to 1 margin, with 66% voting against the ballot measure that would've scrapped Colorado’s flat income tax and replaced it with a progressive income tax system with a top rate 27% higher than the one currently on the books.

Not only will Colorado taxpayers be spared of the hit on their pocketbooks that would've resulted from passage of Amendment 66, the more than half a million Colorado small businesses that would’ve been hit by the tax hike will avoid the huge reduction in their job-creating capacity that this income tax hike would’ve wrought.

Colorado residents are clearly smarter than Michael Bloomberg and others give them credit for. Voters saw through the misinformation and recognized that Amendment 66 was a tax hike that would hurt the state economy while doing nothing to improve public education. ATR congratulates the people of Colorado for making a fiscally sound decision and applauds all those who worked tirelessly, and against deep-pocketed opponents, to defeat this ill-advised proposal.