Colorado General Election, November 3, 2026

Health Care for All Colorado (HCAC) works for one standard of high-quality health care for every Coloradan, without financial barriers, financed through a publicly funded single-payer system. The HCAC Board has reviewed the fourteen statewide measures on the 2026 ballot and taken the positions below. Each position reflects the measure's effect on access to care, on the health of Coloradans, or on the public revenue Colorado needs to fund health care.

Amendments change the state constitution and need 55% of the vote to pass. Propositions change state law and need a simple majority.

Downloadable/Printable PDF Version of the Report

Summary of HCAC Positions

HCAC Supports (Vote YES)

Amendment 87: Graduated Income Tax

HCAC position: YES  Constitutional

What it does. Replaces Colorado's flat 4.4% income tax with a graduated structure that cuts taxes modestly for roughly 97% of filers and raises rates on income above $500,000 and on the largest corporations. New revenue, estimated at $2 billion to $2.7 billion a year, is dedicated to K-12 education, health care, and early childhood care and education.

Why HCAC supports it. Directly funds health care and does so through progressive taxation based on ability to pay, the same financing principle that underlies single-payer. It begins to reverse a regressive tax code in which the wealthiest Coloradans pay the smallest share of income, and it gives the state the fiscal capacity that universal coverage will require.

Proposition NN: State Investment in K-12 Public Education (Keep and Spend Revenue Above the TABOR Cap)

HCAC position: YES  Statutory (referred by the legislature, SB 26-135)

What it does. Creates a new revenue limit above the Referendum C cap so the state may retain and spend revenue that would otherwise be refunded under TABOR, directed to K-12 teacher pay, class sizes, special education, career and technical education, and child care and preschool.

Why HCAC supports it. The TABOR cap is the single greatest structural obstacle to funding health care in Colorado. Every dollar of K-12 funding that must come from the general fund competes directly with Medicaid, behavioral health, and public health. Retaining surplus revenue for education relieves that pressure and sets a precedent that Coloradans will choose public services over refunds that mostly benefit the wealthy.

HCAC Opposes (Vote NO)

Amendment 81: Law Enforcement Reporting Requirements to Federal Authorities

HCAC position: NO  Constitutional

What it does. Requires Colorado law enforcement to notify federal immigration authorities within 72 hours when a person suspected of lacking legal status is charged with certain crimes or has prior felony convictions.

Why HCAC opposes it. Mandatory immigration reporting deepens fear of any contact with public institutions, including hospitals, clinics, and public health programs. When immigrant families avoid care, untreated illness spreads, emergency costs rise, and the goal of care for everyone regardless of status moves further away.

Amendment 82: Right to Natural Gas

HCAC position: NO  Constitutional

What it does. Creates a constitutional right for consumers to buy, and utilities to sell, natural gas.

Why HCAC opposes it. Locks a fossil fuel into the state constitution, hindering Colorado's transition to cleaner energy. Gas extraction and combustion contribute to ozone, asthma, and respiratory and cardiovascular illness, with the heaviest burden on low-income communities. Air quality is a health issue and a health cost issue.

Amendment 83: Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish

HCAC position: NO  Constitutional

What it does. Establishes a constitutional right to hunt and fish using "traditional methods" and declares hunting and fishing the state's preferred method of wildlife management.

Why HCAC opposes it. Coloradans already have the right to hunt and fish, and wildlife population management is already handled by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The measure's vague "traditional methods" language could open the door to reintroducing cruel and dangerous practices such as bear traps and baiting, creating a potential health hazard to people as well as wildlife.

Amendment 84: Mail Ballot Voter Identification

HCAC position: NO  Constitutional

What it does. Ends Colorado's signature-verification system for mail ballots and requires voters to also provide the last four digits of a Social Security or driver's license number for the ballot to count.

Why HCAC opposes it. Adds a new barrier to voting that falls hardest on older adults, people with disabilities, and low-income voters, the same Coloradans who depend most on public health programs and whose voices are needed to win health care reform at the ballot box. It also raises state and county election costs, competing with other general fund priorities.

Amendment 85: Plain Language Ballot Questions

HCAC position: NO  Constitutional

What it does. Requires all future ballot measures to be written at an eighth-grade reading level and prohibits adding explanatory language to ballot titles beyond that standard.

Why HCAC opposes it. Despite its name, the measure would bar the legislature from requiring ballot titles to explain the fiscal consequences of tax measures, leaving voters less informed about proposals that fund health care and other services. HCAC's strategy relies on ballot initiatives, so rules that govern how measures are presented to voters directly affect our work.

Amendment 86: Congressional Redistricting

HCAC position: NO  Constitutional

What it does. Requires any mid-decade congressional redistricting to be approved by both the independent redistricting commission and the Colorado Supreme Court, and prohibits maps drawn to favor a political party.

Why HCAC opposes it. The measure limits the options available to voters and lawmakers to respond to partisan gerrymandering, restricting direct democracy and voter power. Winning universal health care will depend on exactly that voter power.

Proposition 132: Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes

HCAC position: NO  Statutory

What it does. Makes distribution of any amount of fentanyl a Level 1 drug felony (8 to 32 years), increases possession penalties, removes record-sealing options, and eliminates immunity for people who call for help during an overdose.

Why HCAC opposes it. Substance use disorder is a medical condition, and incarceration does not reduce drug use or overdose deaths. Ending overdose-reporting immunity will cost lives by discouraging 911 calls. The measure is projected to cost the state roughly $68 million over five years in prison costs, money drawn from the same general fund that pays for treatment and Medicaid.

Proposition 133: Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor

HCAC position: NO  Statutory

What it does. Reclassifies sex trafficking of a minor from a Class 2 to a Class 1 felony, requiring life in prison without parole, and broadens the definition to include trading anything of value for sexual activity with a minor.

Why HCAC opposes it. By removing judicial discretion, the measure would expose trafficking survivors who were coerced into recruiting others to mandatory life sentences. Trafficking survivors need trauma-informed care, not incarceration.

Proposition 134: Male and Female Participation in School Sports

HCAC position: NO  Statutory

What it does. Prohibits students in K-12 and postsecondary schools from participating on sports teams that do not match the sex assigned at birth.

Why HCAC opposes it. Participation in organized sports measurably improves the mental and physical health of young people, and transgender youth already face elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Excluding them from sports is a health harm imposed by statute, with no evidence of benefit to other students.

Proposition 135: Prohibit Certain Surgeries for Minors

HCAC position: NO  Statutory

What it does. Prohibits surgical procedures that alter a minor's physical sex characteristics and bars state, federal, and private insurance from paying for them.

Why HCAC opposes it. A direct legislative intrusion into medical decisions that belong to patients, families, and physicians, and an explicit ban on insurance and Medicaid coverage for care supported by major medical associations. It violates HCAC's core principle of one standard of high-quality care for all without financial or political barriers, and it falls hardest on low-income families who cannot travel out of state.

Proposition 136: Income Tax Rate Cap

HCAC position: NO  Statutory

What it does. Caps the state individual and corporate income tax rate at 4.4% beginning in tax year 2027.

Why HCAC opposes it. The rate is already 4.4%, so the measure's purpose is to nullify Amendment 87 and its $2 billion or more a year for health care, education, and child care. Permanently capping income tax revenue would foreclose the progressive financing that a universal health care system requires and lock in Colorado's structural budget shortfall.

Proposition 137: Designate Sporting Goods Sales Tax Revenue for Conservation

HCAC position: NO  Statutory

What it does. Redirects existing state sales tax revenue on sporting goods, roughly $175 million a year, from the general fund to conservation, wildfire mitigation, water, and outdoor recreation programs, and exempts that amount from the TABOR cap.

Why HCAC opposes it. Conservation is a worthy goal, but this measure earmarks money the state already collects. In years when revenue is under the TABOR cap, the fiscal note says the $175 million comes directly out of funds otherwise available for health care, education, and human services. Carving up the general fund by ballot measure shrinks the pool that Medicaid and public health depend on.

Sources

Measure descriptions and fiscal figures are drawn from the Colorado Secretary of State's certified 2026 ballot list, Legislative Council Staff fiscal summaries as reported by the Bell Policy Center 2026 Ballot Guide, Ballotpedia, Colorado Newsline, Colorado Public Radio, and The Colorado Sun.