Legislature asks voters to approve 10-year property tax relief plan

BY JESSE PAUL AND ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado voters will decide in November whether to approve a 10-year plan to rein in skyrocketing property taxes, as well as whether the state should distribute about $2 billion in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds checks next year in equal amounts rather than linking their size to people’s income level, with more money being sent to higher earners.

e questions were placed on the November ballot on May 8 by Democrats in the Colorado legislature as the General Assembly wrapped up its 120-day lawmaking term. e legislature worked until about 10 p.m., just before its 11:59 p.m. deadline, to complete its work, when the Capitol carriage turns back into a pumpkin.

e last few hours of the session were chaotic, with Republicans walking out of the House chamber in protest, Democrats in the House lambasting each other and the Senate limiting debate to stop a GOP libuster.

e property tax plan, pushed for by Gov. Jared Polis, will appear on the ballot as Proposition HH and would work by tamping down the e ect of rising residential and commercial property values on the tax burden for homeowners and businesses.

Here’s how it would work for residential property:

• e residential assessment rate would be reduced to 6.7% from 6.765% in 2023, for taxes owed in 2024, and to 6.7% from 6.976% for taxes owed in 2025. e 6.7% rate would remain unchanged through the 2032 tax year, for taxes owed in 2033.

• In addition to the assessment rate cuts, residential property owners would get to exempt the rst $50,000 of their home’s value from taxation for the 2023 tax year, a $10,000 increase made through an amendment adopted Monday. Residential property owners would then get to exempt $40,000 of their homes’ values from taxation for the 2024 tax year. e break would persist until the 2032 tax year, except for people’s second or subsequent single-family homes, like rental or vacation properties, which would stop being subject to that bene t in the 2025 tax year.