On the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs — a set of tariffs imposed on U.S. trading partners worldwide — state treasurers, including Colorado’s Dave Young (D), held a zoom press conference to discuss the negative impacts of the tariffs on their states.
“Trump’s tariffs are a self-inflicted crisis that represents economic devastation, not liberation, for working families and businesses,” said Young. “Businesses need predictability to grow, but what they are getting instead is tariff whiplash. Policies are announced and they are changed, they are reversed, they’re escalated — with little warning. That creates chaos for business owners trying to plan investments, hire staff or set prices. A Denver retailer recently reported that tariffs cost his business $25,000 last fall alone. And across the state, Colorado businesses paid $1.1 billion in tariffs in 2025. For a small business, that is not a formula for a thriving future. It’s a recipe for ruin.”
The nonprofit For the Long Term recently released a report analyzing the impact of Trump’s tariffs. The report found that Trump’s tariffs cost the average American household more than $1,700 between February 2025 and January 2026 and Trump’s tariffs hiked retail prices for domestic goods by nearly 5% on average.
“Colorado is feeling the sting from these illegal trade policies,” said Young. “Tariffs in Colorado increased sevenfold from about three percent to 21 percent, the highest levels in more than a century. These high costs are rippling across key industries from agriculture and construction to energy and aerospace. These are industries that power Colorado’s economy and support communities across our state. The governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting now estimates a 40% chance of recession in the next 12 months, underscoring the economic risk tied to tariff uncertainty and the international instability caused in part by the war in Iran. When businesses face higher costs, these costs are eventually passed on to consumers. Coloradans are already seeing higher prices at the grocery store, on their utility bills, and now at the gas pump — and now new forecasts predict that inflation may rise above four percent, further constraining household budgets. Coloradans and the American people cannot afford these reckless economic policies. Businesses don’t need chaos, they need certainty. Working families don’t need higher prices, they need stability, and states don’t need economic shocks. We need thoughtful, strategic policy. The so-called Liberation Day tariffs are not liberating Colorado businesses or families. They are creating uncertainty, rising costs, and weakening our economy.”
The impact of tariffs is also exacerbating Colorado’s existing budget woes. “When you are looking at the kind of budget shortfalls that we have in the state, much greater than we experienced during the brief recession of COVID in 2020 — that was a 3.3 billion dollar impact to the general fund,” said Young. “We’re now looking over the last 18 months or so at 3.7 billion. We’re just running on fumes here at this point, and it makes it very difficult for the state to actually be proactive in any of the work that we’re doing.”
The state is still facing a $1.5 billion shortfall in 2026, even after the Joint Budget Committee cut tens of millions in spending, including to Medicaid, the primary driver of the state’s budget shortfall.
“Today’s forecast shows that despite increased costs on families from Trump’s illegal tariffs, international instability, and supply chain impacts from the war in Iran, Colorado remains resilient,” said Governor Polis in a March 19 news release. “Our economy has not recovered from the cost of disastrous tariff taxes, and the chance of a recession remains concerning. However, our balanced budget proposal ensures our reserves remain healthy to protect the state from the growing chance of a future economic downturn.”
Young noted that Colorado’s Tax Payer Bill of Rights (TABOR) makes it harder for the state to respond to economic uncertainty. “We’re in a severe crisis with the state budget currently,” he said. “A good chunk of that has to do with Medicaid, but over the last 18 months or so, we’ve had to cut $3.7 billion from our state’s budget. When taxpayers are taxed again — whether that’s businesses paying it or consumers paying it — this slows our economy down. It makes people spend less … and we have less revenue coming in. We lose jobs. This concern about a recession and the loss of jobs that result from a recession will certainly damage our revenue stream, and then we have property tax increases from legislative action a couple of years ago. So consumers are really feeling the bite here, and our most restrictive tax and expenditure provisions in our Colorado state constitution called TABOR, it really hampers our ability to respond in the middle of this kind of economic uncertainty and chaos.”
In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s tariffs were unconstitutional, but Trump re-enacted global tariffs under separate provisions.
“Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that the tariffs were in fact a breach of executive authority, Americans still may never see the money back since consumers are left to the mercy of companies that are double-dipping by simultaneously raising prices and suing for refunds,” said New Mexico Treasurer Laura Montoya (D). “Few companies have taken action in good faith by offering their customers refunds, instead the vast majority have already passed higher costs on to Americans and now stand to gain even more if they receive the refunds. To make matters even worse for Americans, the federal administration is getting slammed by lawsuits filed by hundreds of companies to get the refund, and the longer they take the more expensive it becomes for taxpayers. Sounds like gaslighting. As reported by the Cato Institute, refunding companies for these illegal tariffs amounting to nearly $175 billion would also cost more due to the additional interest the federal government would have to pay, which would amount to about $23 million per day. It also adds another layer of uncertainty and disappointment that Americans were promised $2,000 rebates funded by tariff revenue, which at this point does not do anything to offset what has been lost.”
