Spending millions to save thousands

Dark money. Dark because no light shines on its origin. It's money that anonymous donors pour into Political Action Committees (PACs). They can do this because in 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that donated money was a form of free speech. Individual Americans can only spend $3,500 per supported political candidate. But that doesn't apply to issues. As long as candidates aren't named, people and corporations can influence issues with money. Corporations have most of the same rights as mere mortals, and tend to donate more than lessor beings.

Whopping amounts are chasing voters in this midterm election. Elon Musk alone poured 77 million into his super PAC. In Colorado, more than 6.5 million dollars in dark donations have been spent to oppose Amendment 87. So what do dark donors hope to get for their money?

Amendment 87 changes how Colorado collects income tax, replacing a proportional tax with a progressive tax. What does that mean? The IRS explains:

• Progressive tax—A tax that takes a larger percentage of income from high-income groups than from low-income groups.
• Proportional tax—A tax that takes the same percentage of income from all income groups.
• Regressive tax—A tax that takes a larger percentage of income from low-income groups than from high-income groups.

Amendment 87 reduces state income tax for 97 percent of Colorado's citizens. The other three percent would pay more. Someone earning two million dollars yearly would be taxed at the highest bracket of 8.4 percent, while someone earning 25 thousand dollars would be taxed at 3.7 percent. Under the current 4.4 percent for everyone, that double-millionaire pays $88,000 yearly. His taxes would increase by $55,925 which is a fair chunk of change — but then, again, so is two million.

So, is it worth it to spend 6.5 million dollars to save a bit less than 56,000 dollars yearly? That depends on how many dark donors share the donation burden, and how many years they can hope to save on their taxes before they need to open their wallets to block another tax increase.

Currently the highest federal marginal income tax rate (or bracket) is 37 percent. It wasn't always that rate. In 1939, the final year of the Great Depression, the highest tax bracket was 79 percent. In 1945, the final year of World War Two the highest rate was 94 percent. Through much of the 1950s — Cold War years — the top rate was 91 percent. The wealthy paid extra tax to help their country. Now they spend darkly to help themselves avoid higher taxes.

During hard times and war, America has asked its wealthy to pay more. And they did. Currently we have low unemployment, but we also have low employment opportunities. Many Americans now struggle to pay for housing, gasoline and food. The country is in an expensive war and our national debt is obscenely high. But dark money wants tax increases off the table. Whatever can we do?