This story by Sara Wilson appeared on Colorado Newsline on August 27, 2024.
The Colorado House of Representatives gave preliminary approval to a property tax bill on Tuesday afternoon after about three hours of debate.
The bill underwent some minor revisions but is largely the same version that passed through committee on Monday that is expected to satisfy supporters of two ballot initiatives that lawmakers are hoping will be withdrawn.
It will need to win a recorded vote in the chamber Wednesday morning before it heads to the Senate.
“It’s important to provide certainty to local governments so that they know what essential services they can provide, so they can make the hard decisions on how to provide for their communities in public safety, public health, human services and all of the things county commissioners and local governments and special districts do,” Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican, said.
Governor Jared Polis called the Legislature into a special session to pass a property tax relief deal in order to avert deep tax-cut ballot initiatives. Initiatives 50 and 108, backed by conservative activists from Colorado Concern and Advance Colorado, would reduce property tax revenue on a level that lawmakers say would be catastrophic to the budgets for local governments, school districts and other local tax districts that rely heavily on property taxes to operate.
The bill makes minor cuts to assessment rates for residential and some non-residential properties and sets revenue growth caps for taxing entities. It builds on a much larger property tax measure from May and gives some relief, but would not slash revenue to the extent the two ballot initiatives would. If this bill passes, those initiatives would be pulled from the ballot, according to the conservative groups that brought them forward.
One successful amendment Tuesday adjusts the bill’s growth gaps by letting local governments and school districts roll over growth allowance if they don’t hit the ceiling during an assessment cycle.
Under the bill, school districts would have a 12% growth cap per cycle. But if a district sees just 5% growth, they can carry that 7% allowance over to the next cycle for a total of a 19% growth cap.
“This provides a smoothing if there is some sort of up and down in our assessed valuation,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, said.
Not every lawmaker is completely on board with the legislative deal being considered. Rep. Tammy Story, an Evergreen Democrat, read concerns she received from fire officials about what further property tax cuts, and therefore revenue cuts, could do for their operations during a time of increased wildfires across the state.
“Costs have escalated dramatically over time, and yet we’re continuing to operate with budgets that are well below any kind of element that would make them whole and allow them to do their work. Continuing to cut property taxes, which we are on this trend where we’ve done it a number of times, is just making the situation worse,” she said.
Progressive lawmakers attempted to amend the bill on Tuesday with concepts that died the previous day in committee. Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, offered an amendment that would have applied home value exemptions — lowering the amount of a home’s value used to calculate taxes — only to primary residences, not additional homes or rental properties.
“These value reductions are a way for us to target relief at homeowners whose value may be (lower),” he said. “We should not allow this additional tax benefit that is supposed to be targeted at working and middle class families to those who own multiple homes.”
Mabrey withdrew the amendment.
Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat, also presented an amendment that mirrored legislation rejected by a House committee. Her amendment would have created a way for homeowners with a median property value to save more on property taxes than people with more expensive homes. She also withdrew the amendment.
The House also gave preliminary approval to two other bills: one related to a tax exemption for agricultural equipment and another for a ballot referral that would require local voter approval of any statewide property tax ballot initiative.
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