The Post editorial: The state’s top economists think the new tax overhaul will give Colorado more badly needed revenue.

Oh, the irony of Republicans in Congress passing a massive federal tax cut that would actually provide Colorado with a boon in state tax revenue, and only a year after state GOP lawmakers shot down a proposal to ask voters for a dedicated revenue stream to fund the $9 billion backlog of transportation needs.

The state’s top economists estimate the federal changes in tax code that are sitting on President Donald Trump’s desk would actually increase income tax revenue in Colorado by an estimated $196 million to $340 million a year beginning in fiscal year 2018-19.

That means the newly passed tax bill would generate more money than the sales tax boost proposed by a bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers earlier this year to fund transportation needs. Republicans in the state Senate refused to send that tax increase to voters. But this new revenue would come without that difficult hurdle. Thanks, Congress!

All joking aside, Colorado’s state government needed and needs additional revenue.

Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 267 last session using a clever accounting trick to allow the state to spend $1.9 billion over the next four years that otherwise would have been returned to taxpayers through TABOR refunds. It’s important to note that without that compromise (driven by Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, and House Speaker Crisanta Duran, a Democrat), most if not all of the Trump tax windfall would have had to be refunded under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

The money set aside by SB 267 for roads, transit and bike lanes, however, will barely make a dent in this state’s infrastructure needs.

Grantham and House Minority Leader Cole Wist are right to call for the lion’s share of the new money to go to transportation needs. Finding a new revenue source for transportation now would make no sense when Congress has handed the state a gift just in time for Christmas.

There are many competing needs in the state’s discretionary budget: our education system, both K-12 and our state universities and colleges, has been underfunded for more than a decade. Yet, in addition to the new revenue expected from the tax bill, Colorado’s economy has been humming along at a pace that allowed Gov. John Hickenlooper to propose an initial budget with generous increases to education while also setting aside more money for the state’s emergency reserves.

According to the state revenue forecasts released Wednesday, there is expected to be significant money on top of Hickenlooper’s original budget for fiscal year 2018-19. The Office of State Planning and Budgeting estimated, even without taking into consideration the Trump tax bill, an extra $179.2 million this fiscal year and $106.6 million next fiscal year. Colorado should save much of that money for the next recession while investing even more in education than Hickenlooper’s first proposal.

All of this is to say that Colorado lawmakers did important work in 2017 setting up the state to be in a position to capitalize on this time of prosperity. We know some will still begrudge the state this money, wishing instead that taxpayers would be getting refunds through TABOR caps. But that’s a short-sighted view. It is vitally important for this state to invest in infrastructure for our future and to ensure reserves are sound enough to weather economic downturns that are certainly on the horizon. The members of The Denver Post’s editorial board are William Dean Singleton, chairman; Mac Tully, CEO and publisher; Chuck Plunkett, editor of the editorial pages; Megan Schrader, editorial writer; and Cohen Peart, opinion editor.