At the October 17 meeting of the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, Chairman Ronnie Maez signed Resolution 2023-121 opposing Proposition HH which addresses property taxes and their potential reduction. Issues with the clarity of the ballot question which is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, the propositions last-minute presentation during the 2023 legislative session, combined with lack of specifications such as the amount of taxes to be reduced, caused all three commissioners to unanimously oppose the proposition.
“Prop HH does not specify where monies will be spent or who will be accountable for those monies,” said commissioner Warren Brown. “In my opinion, this is problematic.”
Resolution 2023-121 further states the ballot question would allow government entities to increase their mill levies, over and above the “revenue limitation” without a taxpayer vote. In addition, it would allow the state of Colorado to collect and spend an additional $9 billion, funded by the significant increase in taxes Prop HH allows. Much of this is not made clear in the ballot question.
The issue of the County not being ‘de-Bruced’ (TABOR Law), the act of eliminating the government spending limit and allowing that government to retain and spend all the revenue it collects under existing property tax rates, the commissioners saw further issues within the vague verbiage of the bill. “As is, if your new assessed property value was 20% or more, this proposition does not benefit you. Archuleta County saw an 80% increase, and due to not being de-Bruced, there is no benefit here,” Brown said.
“This is legislation we cannot recall,” Chairman Maez commented. “If this passes, it will take another piece of legislation to recall it. All it will do, is cause a financial deficit. Just don’t do it.”
Here is the text of the County resolution:
WHEREAS, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (“BoCC”) firmly believes that citizens should have a say in matters of taxation and public spending; and
WHEREAS, an informed vote requires clear and concise ballot language that adequately describes the full impact of a “yes” or “no” vote; and
WHEREAS, the Colorado General Assembly passed legislation signed into law by the Governor on May 24,2023 known as Senate Bill23-303, “Reduce Property Taxes And Voter-Approved Revenue Change” which is a lengthy (48 page) bill with a l7-line formal title and 24 specific sections which is neither clear nor concise and contains a question referred for voter approval; and
WHEREAS, the referred ballot measure language specified is “SHALL THE STATE REDUCE PROPERTY TAXES FOR HOMES AND BUSINESSES, INCLUDING EXPANDING PROPERTY TAX RE,LIEF FOR SENIORS, AND BACKFILL COUNTIES, WATER DISTRICTS, FIRE DISTRICTS, AMBULANCE AND HOSPITAL DISTRICTS, AND OTHER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND FUND SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY USING A PORTION OF THE STATE SURPLUS UP TO THE PROPOSITION HH CAP AS DEFINED IN THIS MEASURE?”; and
WHEREAS, the ballot question does not specify the amount of taxes to be reduced, does not specify what the expanded property tax relief for seniors consists of, does not specify the amount of backfill to various local government type or indicate this backfill will not be perpetual, does not indicate that the “state surplus” consists of tax dollars collected over the current TABOR cap that would otherwise be refunded, nor does it specify that the new TABOR cap defined in the measure would allow government to grow at a much greater rate than inflation and population; and
WHEREAS, the funding of schools in this manner was previously submitted to the people as Proposition CC in 20l9 and failed to gain voter approval; and
WHEREAS, hiding this previously failed measure behind a vaguely worded promise of a property tax decrease which will in fact be much smaller than the amount of new tax dollars collected and kept by the state is misleading and potentially a violation of the State Constitution; and
WHEREAS, SB23-303 likely violates the “single subject” requirement found in the State Constitution by addressing multiple subjects (property tax relief, school funding, funds the housing development grant fund, and establishes a tenant rent relief program) and may very well be overturned by the courts in future litigation; and
WHEREAS, the ballot question would allow government entities to increase their mill levies, over and above the “revenue limitation”, without a vote of the taxpayers; and
WHEREAS, the ballot question would allow the state of Colorado to collect and spend an additional $9 billion, funded by the significant increase in taxes Proposition HH allows; and
WHEREAS, the ballot question authorizes a 25% increase in the annual growth rate in the state spending limit, adding dollars to the state’s largest budget on record; and
WHEREAS, the ballot question allows the state legislature to extend Proposition HH through 2040 producing a $21 billion net tax increase, as property taxes are reduced by $21.49 billion while state taxes increase by $2.38 billion, all without voter approval; and
WHEREAS, the average homeowner would face a net tax increase of $478 through 2032, and while they would see $4,641 in property tax savings, they would have a $5,119 increase in state taxes paid for by loss of TABOR refunds; and
WHEREAS, while the 768,000, or 33% of all Colorado households that are renters, would not directly receive a property tax reduction, those who are joint filers would lose $5,119 in future TABOR refunds in addition to the increase in property taxes over time that landlords choose to pass on to the renter.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, THAT THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF ARCHULETA COUNTY, COLORADO officially declares its opposition to the referred measure Proposition HH as it clearly violates the spirit, and likely the clear language, of the State Constitution, seems purposefully written to mislead voters into approving a measure they recently voted down in another form, and obscures the fact that passage would eliminate future TABOR refunds and further reduce the limits placed on the growth of government in this state; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the BoCC also urges all citizens of Archuleta County and the State of Colorado to vote “NO” on Proposition HH on the November 2023 ballot.
APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 17th day of October 2023