We’re posted a couple of articles, here in the Daily Post, about Republicans in the Colorado General Assembly calling for property tax relief, following a huge increase in property valuations in 2023. One of the articles, written by Sara Wilson, was dated July 7, 2023. Another was an editorial by yours truly on November 10, that quoted a press release from the Republicans themselves:
In response to this unprecedented spike in property taxes, the Colorado Senate and House Republicans unveiled common-sense solutions to deliver real property tax relief to property owners in Colorado.
The first part of the Republican solution will help provide necessary relief to Colorado seniors by allowing seniors who previously qualified for the senior homestead exemption to receive the same property tax benefit for any home they purchase and live in as their primary residence. The Republican solution would also double the current exemption amount to $200,000…
…The second part of the Republicans’ solution to lower property taxes would be to lower the assessment rates for all residential, and most nonresidential properties. The residential property assessment rate would decrease from its current 7.15% to 6.7% with the first $50,000 in value being exempted. Under the Republican solution, the nonresidential property assessment rate would be lowered to 27.9%, down from its current 29%.
Colorado Republicans were confident that the complicated property tax relief solution developed by the Dems last spring — Proposition HH — was going to be rejected by the voters, and were calling for a Special Session already in July.
Prop HH was indeed rejected.
The Republicans are in the minority in both houses of the Colorado General Assembly, so they can make suggestions, and even lodge complaints, but the bills passed during last weekend’s Special Session were written by Democrats and passed by Democrats.
Although maybe our two parties aren’t as different as they might want us to think.
The Dems passed two bills related to property tax.
SB23B-001 specifically lowers the assessment rate for residential properties to 6.7% (as suggested by the Republicans.) But only for the 2023 tax year. Fire districts will be reimbursed for the decreased property tax collections, and some local governments will also be reimbursed — but according to my reading of the bill, Archuleta County will not be one of the local governments that gets reimbursed.
The residential property tax rate for 2023 was going to be 6.765%. So it’s been reduced by 0.065%.
HB23B-1003 creates the bipartisan Commission on Property Tax to provide recommendations for long and short term property tax relief and evaluate the impact of property tax related ballot measures filed at the title board this year. From a press release from the General Assembly Dems:
The goal of HB23B-1003 is to gather leaders from across the state and key constituencies impacted by property taxes to map out potential long-term solutions to property taxes that have been rising since Coloradans voted to repeal the Gallagher Amendment in 2020.
Some of us may not recall that we voted to freeze our property tax assessments in 2020. Prior to that vote, residential taxes were falling on a regular basis, as home values climbed towards the stratosphere. But someone talked us into freezing the mill levy; I can’t remember who. Maybe the Dems?
The Democrat legislators didn’t stop with property tax bills during the Special Session, however. They passed four additional bills to address the financial mess we’re in.
HB23B-1001 boosts statewide rental assistance to a total of $65 million, securing an additional $30 million on top of the $35 million from federal funds already allocated. The bill provides financial assistance for rent owed and other related costs — for Colorado tenants making at or below 80 percent of the area median income.
SB23B-002 allocates an estimated $35 million in federal funds to expand Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) benefits, which will help families purchase groceries from SNAP retailers during the summer months when child hunger is most severe. Families with children eligible for the national free and reduced-price school meals program will receive $40 a month per eligible child for the summer benefit in 2024.
HB23B-1002 expands the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for tax year 2023 to one of the highest state matches in the country. With the current state EITC at 25 percent, the average tax credit is $521. By increasing the EITC to 50 percent, families will see hundreds of additional dollars back in their wallets next year.
SB23B-003 adjusts the TABOR refund mechanism for the 2023 tax year to provide an equal refund of $800 for all taxpayers, increasing TABOR refunds for the majority of filers and by hundreds of dollars for lower-income people.
Some of the bills were signed by Governor Polis on Monday, including SB23B-001 (the property tax relief) and HB23B-1003 (the equal TABOR refunds).
Michael Fields at Advance Colorado — one of the campaign organizations urging voters to reject Prop HH — reacted to the Dems’ property tax bill with this comment:
“The bottom line is that government shouldn’t grow faster than taxpayers’ wages… Let’s hope legislators come back to work in January with a New Year’s resolution to really cut property taxes. If they don’t, we are ready to empower Colorado voters to do the job themselves.”
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