Colorado Legislators Headed Toward Special Session to Address Property Taxes

Posted by Joe Adamack on August 16, 2024

This week Colorado Governor Jared Polis called lawmakers back to Denver for a special session slated to begin on August 26th to specifically address property tax rates in the state.

Colorado’s current property tax policies can lead to significant volatility without legislative intervention. Lawmakers acted last year during a special session to smooth the curve ahead of anticipated rate increases, and passed additional legislation aimed at curbing major property tax increases during the 2024 regular session.

For some that work did not go far enough, which led to two ballot initiatives to be developed that would both reduce future rates and put more aggressive caps on growth rates. A potential compromise plan, that is still being worked on, that the legislature could pass during its special session may have agreement from initiative backers to pull those off the ballot in exchange for the legislative solution. That said, lawmakers, the governor’s office, and other stakeholders are still negotiating details and wrangling votes so there are still many changes ahead.

The Colorado Sun published a detailed breakdown of the tax rates, potential fiscal impacts, and political perspectives on the upcoming work which you can read here – https://coloradosun.com/2024/08/15/colorado-special-session-property-taxes-election-2024/

Notably, when referring to property tax “cuts” passed earlier this year or considered in the compromise to be assessed during special session these are reductions in what the anticipated growth rates would be, not that any property taxpayers would necessarily see their current property tax bills go down, although that is possible under the initiatives.

Another interesting note is that some lawmakers would like to see any property tax compromise prohibit future ballot initiatives on property tax in future years, mirrored off a previous initiative, with the aim of protecting the compromise for more than just one year.

Many details and elements of a delicate negotiation are still to come so this is far from simple and over, but we will keep you posted in the coming weeks as this evolves.

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Colorado Advocacy.