Komor Answers Kim Monson’s TABOR Challenge: Public Enterprises Must Earn Voters’ Trust
Contact: Christian Komor for Colorado Governor | info@k4gov.com | 800-884-0824
Colorado governor candidate proposes clear tests for fees, public accounts and voter approval before expanding state enterprises
DENVER, September 29, 2026 — Christian R. Komor, a candidate for Colorado governor, is responding to a question Kim Monson posed after their September 21 interview: How can any candidate advocate more state enterprises while keeping the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights meaningful?
“Kim is asking exactly the question candidates for governor ought to answer,” Komor said. “I support TABOR, and I have proposed public enterprises. That means I owe voters a hard line between a genuine business that earns revenue by providing value and a mandatory charge disguised as a fee. ‘Trust me’ is not an accounting standard.”
Legislative Council Staff reports that total state-enterprise revenue rose from $742.3 million in FY 1993–94 to $23.3 billion in FY 2022–23. Enterprise revenue is excluded from the state’s TABOR limit. The $23.3 billion is total revenue across enterprises, including higher education and healthcare entities; it is not an estimate of taxpayer refunds that would otherwise have been paid.
Komor’s published platform proposes state-owned enterprises funded by services, leases and investment returns. In response to Monson’s challenge, he proposes four safeguards for any new enterprise under that model:
A real service, with a disclosed payer. State what the enterprise provides, who pays, whether the charge is effectively unavoidable, and how it relates to the service. Do not relabel a general tax as a fee.
A public business case. Show five-year revenue and cost projections, debt obligations, alternatives, and who bears the risk if the enterprise fails. Projected profits are not money in hand.
Annual independent accounting. Publish fees, expenses, debt, transfers, service results and continuing qualification under TABOR.
Voter approval. Honor Proposition 117: a new or newly qualified enterprise whose fees and surcharges exceed $100 million in its first five fiscal years needs statewide approval, including the law’s aggregation rule for enterprises serving primarily the same purpose. No artificial splitting to evade review.
“Public ownership is not a license to hide revenue,” Komor said. “If an enterprise cannot show voters who pays, what they receive, and what risk the public carries, it has not earned the right to be created. Proposition 117 is a floor for accountability, not permission to make everything else opaque.”
Komor invites other candidates for governor to state plainly which enterprises they would support, which charges they would reject, and how they would protect voter control over Colorado’s fiscal future.
About Christian Komor: Komor is a clinical psychologist, author and candidate for Colorado governor. His platform covers affordability, public accountability, energy, water and climate.
More information: k4gov.com.
Paid for by Committee to Elect Christian R Komor Colorado Governor 2026. Registered Agent: Christian Robert Komor.
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