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rental assistance funds helped keep families in stable housing.
“For the unstable economy and with infl ation, it’s important to continue creating quality jobs,” she said.
50 ways to save money
On the state level, Polis said Colorado is on a strong economic recovery, ranking fi fth compared to the other 49 states in the country.
“More people are employed today than pre-pandemic or ever before,” he said.
Polis also applauded what he and the State Legislature has done to save Coloradoans money, to the tune of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”
“Just cut the tax, Max. Lowered the rate, Nate. You don’t need to pay more, Thor. Just send your kids for free to preschool and kindergarten,” he sang.
He also reminded listeners that Coloradoans will be getting a rebate of at least $500 this year.
“That’s about $75 million right back to Adams County residents and about $86 million right back to Adams County residents for couples,” he said.
The governor also touted a $700 million statewide property tax relief package that will decrease property tax bills by $300 for a house in Adams County.
He explained that residential property taxes in Colorado are much lower than commercial property taxes, so small businesses and other commercial property will see greater relief.
A commercial property in Commerce City or Thornton worth $500,000 will see its annual tax bill reduced by $1,900, Polis said.
Families with preschoolers will also see an estimated $4,700 in their pockets after the legislature passed universal preschool this past session.
“We want to have this county be family friendly. We want it to be affordable for families,” Polis said.
Attendees eat and listen at the State of the Region for Adams County. PHOTO BY LUKE ZARZECKI
A culture of doing
How to attract and retain employees was the fi rst topic addressed by the panel, and Campbell emphasized the importance of a healthy work culture to attract young people.
“This is really important for a lot of young folks out there,” he said.
For Campbell, his company’s mission is to transition to a clean energy and clean transportation economy.
He said Colorado is an attractive place to be due to the state’s landscape and quality of life.
VanNurden talked about the importance of diversity in the medical fi eld, which translates into any other fi eld. He spoke of not only diverse backgrounds and experiences but also diverse skill sets and knowledge, such as medical professionals learning from business professionals and vice versa.
He said Adams County is on the map for industry and commercial endeavors.
To continue to attract talent to the state, VanNurden said families think about whether it is safe to move to a new place and where their kids will go to school, and he urged local elected offi cials to focus on these things.
An advantage Colorado has, Campbell and VanNurden said, is the amount of research institutions in the state and the amount of research being done.
“There’s just a phenomenal amount of research going on here that is relevant to commercial industry,” Campbell said.
Most of all, Colorado possesses a “to-do” culture.
In offering advice to elected offi cials, panel members recommended local government bodies approve proposals and other business related items quickly.
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value of a residential property is waived as long as doing so doesn’t cause the assessed property value to fall below $1,000. • For commercial properties, the assessment rate in 2023 is reduced to 27.9% from 29%. Additionally, the first $30,000 in taxable value of a commercial property is waived as long as doing so doesn’t cause the assessed property value to fall below $1,000.
Are you confused about how this will affect your property tax bill? That’s OK. We’re here to help.
Assessment rates are important because they are used to calculate how much someone owes in taxes. The rate is multiplied by a home’s assessed value, which is determined by a county assessor. What a property owner pays is then determined by the mill levy rate. A mill is a $1 payment on every $1,000 of assessed value.
The 2023 reduction will mean that a residential property owner who owns a home with an assessed value of $300,000 in an area with a mill levy of 100 will pay $1,963 versus $2,145.
In 2024, the rates will go up slightly. For single-family residential property owners, the assessment rate will be approximately 6.95%, down from 7.15%. For multifamily residential property, the rate will be 6.8%.
For those who own commercial property used for agriculture and to produce renewable energy, the 2024 assessment rate will be 26.4%, down from 29%.
The 2024 rates match a reduction approved for the 2021 and 2022 tax years under a measure passed by the legislature in 2021.
Finally, the legislature extended a change allowing senior citizens to defer all of the increases in their property taxes until they sell their homes while allowing everyone else to defer any increases over 4%.
Another measure passed this year, House Bill 1416, that Polis also signed into law May 16 requires county assessors to include an estimate of the property taxes each property owner owes when mailing out notices of property valuation changes. The notices also must include an alert to property owners about the June 8 deadline to file an assessment appeal.Big TABOR refund checks are coming
Individual Colorado taxpayers will be mailed a check of at least $500 while joint filers will get at least $1,000. People who filed their tax returns on time will get the checks in late August or early September, while those with extensions will get their checks sometime later.
Where is this money coming from? An estimated $2 billion in tax revenue collected by the state this fiscal year, which ends June 30, in excess of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap on government growth and spending, which is calculated based on inflation and population growth.
The money had to be refunded regardless, but Senate Bill 233, passed by the legislature this year, moved up the timeline and aimed to make the refunds more equitable by increasing the amount of money lower-income earners would get while decreasing the amount higher-income earners would receive.
Colorado taxpayers could get even larger refund checks if tax revenue in May and June is above what’s projected by nonpartisan legislative staff and economists in the governor’s office.
Additionally, Coloradans will also get an income tax rate cut to 4.5% from 4.55% because of the TABOR excess.
Gasoline fees won’t start until April 2023
Colorado motorists were set to be charged a new, 2-cent-pergallon fee on gasoline starting in July under a bill passed by the legislature in 2021 intended to raise money for transportation projects. But lawmakers this year passed House Bill 1351, which was signed into law May 16 by Polis, delaying the start of the fee until April 2023.
Fact check: There will be new fees on gasoline, just not until April 1, 2023. And those fees, by the way, are permanent and will rise to 8 cents per gallon starting on July 1 and could go up in subsequent years based on inflation.
Business tax and fee breaks
Polis signed three bills into law May 16 that will reduce businesses’ costs.
Senate Bill 6 will let small businesses with less than $100,000 in taxable sales per sales tax filing period — which is typically each month — keep 5.3% of the sales tax they owe the state, up from 4%. The relief lasts one year and is forecast to total about $5 million.
Senate Bill 124 lets S corporations and partnerships — known as pass-through businesses — retroactively pay their state income taxes dating back to 2018 through their businesses rather than through their owners.
The bill lets the owners avoid a temporary federal $10,000 cap on federal income tax deductions for individual income taxpayers. That cap doesn’t exist, however, for C corporations, meaning that Senate Bill 124 will let those businesses take a larger deduction.
House Bill 1001 temporarily reduces business filing fees in Colorado owed to the Secretary of State’s Office to $1 from a range of $10 to $50. The fees are typically charged for annual business registration renewal, new trade name registrations and renewals and updates to business information.
The cost of getting, renewing a driver’s license will remain flat — for now
Renewing your driver’s license in the near future? You’ll save about $2 under House Bill 1004, which Polis signed into law and allocates nearly $4 million to the Division of Motor Vehicles to prevent a fee increase.
The current cost to get or renew a driver’s license is $30.87, and the DMV was expected to increase the fee in the coming years to cover its rising costs.
Like the gas fee, however, don’t expect the break to last forever. The relief is only set to last two years.
Property taxes were kept down in the 2022 legislature.
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This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support The Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. The Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media.
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