VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 49
WEEK OF DECEMBER 7, 2023
Working on the bottleneck
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Deciding property tax reform’s fate Task force looking for property tax solution won’t include people behind 2024 ballot measures BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN
elevations and grades. But at the 100% level, you get to all the issues with the project.” Work to get the 30% designs for the entire project cost $2 million, with $1.6 million in federal funds granted by the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Local governments split the rest, with Thornton paying $200,000 for the work and Adams County and Commerce City paying $100,000 each. If full funding comes through, the project could get underway next year or in 2025. “We have a lot of competition — the entire country,” Schlitz said. “There’s a lot of competition for that money because there are a lot of road that need fixing.”
The task force charged with finding a long-term solution to Coloradans’ rising property tax bills after the failure of Proposition HH in the November election won’t include a key set of power players: people who are pursuing or already have measures on the 2024 ballot that would change the state’s property tax code. The legislation forming the task force, passed by the Democratic majority at the Colorado Capitol during the special legislative session that wrapped up just before Thanksgiving, bars anyone who is a “designated representative” of a 2024 property tax ballot measure or who is a member of an issue committee that supports or opposes such an initiative from being one of the 19 appointees to the panel. That includes activists and business leaders like Michael Fields, who runs Advance Colorado, the conservative political nonprofit behind a measure on the 2024 ballot that would cap annual property tax increases at 4%; Scott Wasserman, president of the Bell Policy Center, the liberal political nonprofit pursuing two ballot initiatives for next year that would counteract Fields’ proposal in part by raising property tax rates on more expensive homes; and Mike Kopp, the CEO of Colorado Concern, a nonprofit representing business leaders that wants to ask voters to roll back property valuations to their early pandemic levels and then limit future value increases.
SEE BOTTLENECK, P4
SEE PROPERTY TAX, P6
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BUSINESS LOCAL
Local transportation officials would like to see work begin by 2025 widening 104th Avenue between Thornton and Commerce City. They have a basic design ready and Thronton is working to begin detail designs for the road between Colorado Boulevard SCOTT TAYLOR and U.S, 85 in Commerce City. BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
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LOCAL OBITUARIES LEGALS CLASSIFIED
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With basic designs for widening the 104th Avenue bottleneck between Colorado Boulevard in Thornton and Highway 85 complete, work now begins to find money for complete designs and begin actual construction on the project. “We don’t have funding to design the whole extent, but what we have can help us get more grants,” said Thornton Engineering Manager Dan Schlitz. “If we want to get more federal grants to complete the project, this is where we want to be.” The road is mostly two lanes between Colorado Boulevard in Thornton and the intersection with Highway 85 in Commerce
City. Plans call for widening the road to five lanes — two lanes in either direction with a center turn lane or median. Engineers have drawn basic maps of the entire project and they presented those at an open house meeting Nov. 29 at Thornton’s Carpenter Park Recreation Center. Technically, the current designs are considered to be 30% level designs. They show the basic layout of the road expansion, complete with new intersections, bike lanes and sidewalks, but lack the minute details such as rights of way, utilities, road grades and more. “There’s a lot of detail that you get at the 30% level,” Thornton Engineer Pete Brezall said. “It gives you a good idea of the work and what the road will look like, your
BRIEFS: PAGE 2 | OBITUARIES: PAGE 4 | CLASSIFIEDS: PAGE 8 | LEGAL: PAGE 10
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