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House Finance

Thursday, February 26, 2026·3h 48m·▶ Watch / Listen

The House Finance Committee advanced three substantive bills — a back-to-school sales tax holiday, a DMV funding redirect, and elder financial exploitation protections — while hearing opening testimony on an outdoor cannabis tax equity bill. The DMV funding bill passed narrowly (7-4) over local government opposition, while the elder fraud bill drew competing concerns about its age threshold and liability provisions from members who voted no 'for today' to preserve room for amendments.

Key Actions

·HB 26-1048 – Back-to-School Sales Tax HolidayPassed

+ 4 more actions

Controversies

Whether the HB 26-1048 sales tax holiday helps low-income families

Anderson Lohmer argued the holiday is regressive because liquidity-constrained low-income families 'often lack the liquidity required to concentrate their purchases within a 48 hour window' and that $7.6 million would be more effective if invested in targeted refundable tax credits. Representative Garcia countered that 'the point of this is not to increase consumption of the goods — the point is to provide some sort of relief for families who can't afford the consumption of the goods,' and used Lohmer's own argument to suggest the holiday should simply be longer.

+ 4 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“To benefit from a 48 hour tax holiday, a household must have liquidity, the cash on hand to buy everything at once during a specific weekend. High income families can easily shift their schedules and spending to maximize these savings. This behavior is known as intertemporal subst. In contrast, low income families often lack the liquidity required to concentrate their purchases within a 48 hour window.”

Anderson Lohmer, economics student, University of Colorado Boulder (opposing HB 26-1048) — Lohmer argued the back-to-school sales tax holiday is regressive because the 48-hour window structurally excludes families living paycheck to paycheck who cannot consolidate purchases.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Move HB 26-1048 as amended with favorable recommendation to the Committee on AppropriationsPassed
Yes (10)Max Brooks, Sean Camacho, Ken DeGraaf, Lorena Garcia, Ryan Gonzalez, Anthony Hartsook, Rebekah Stewart, Yara Zokaie, Brianna Titone, Steven Woodrow
No (1)Bob Marshall
Move HB 26-1102 as amended to the Committee of the Whole with favorable recommendationPassed
Yes (7)Sean Camacho, Lorena Garcia, Bob Marshall, Rebekah Stewart, Yara Zokaie, Brianna Titone, Steven Woodrow
No (4)Max Brooks, Ken DeGraaf, Ryan Gonzalez, Anthony Hartsook
Move HB 26-1110 as amended to the Committee of the WholePassed
Yes (8)Max Brooks, Sean Camacho, Ken DeGraaf, Ryan Gonzalez, Anthony Hartsook, Bob Marshall, Rebekah Stewart, Steven Woodrow
No (3)Lorena Garcia, Yara Zokaie, Brianna Titone
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TranscriptPreview
The committee will come to order. Ms. Culver, please call the roll. Representatives Brooks. Camacho. Here. DeGraff. Excused. Garcia. Here. Gonzalez. Excused. Hartsug. Excused. Marshall. Here. Stuart. Excused. So Kai. Here. Tatone. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. Good afternoon Everyone made it by a minute. We do have a quorum. We're going to be going a little bit out of order from how things were printed in the House calendar and we might have to make adjustments on the fly today because we have several bill sponsors presenting in several different committees. But we are going to start with House Bill 1048, back to school sales tax holiday. Who'd like to kick us off? AML Winter thank you all for hearing this bill today. House Bill 26, 1048, the back to school sales tax holiday. I'm going to keep it short and sweet. I've been in a couple other states where they do this. We're talking about an affordability crisis that we see. And I think every dollar counts. I think every few pennies that a family can keep back are important. I know that we're in a constrained budget so we'll be bringing some amendments here in a little bit…
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