Colorado budget analysts expect tax revenue from sports betting to double in the coming year in what would amount to a touchdown, a field goal and a safety for the Colorado water projects.
The Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting and the nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff project that sports betting tax revenues will be as high as $24 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year, which began July 1. Of that money, $22.5 million would go toward the Colorado Water Project, the plan aimed at ensuring Colorado has enough water for its growing population amid climate change-induced drought.
The state collected only about $12.4 million in sports betting taxes in the 2021-22 fiscal year, which ended June 30, about $11.4 million of which will go toward the water plan. Hence, the touchdown ($6 million), field goal ($3 million) and safety ($2 million) analogy.
