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October 14, 2021
DENVER, COLORADO
A publication of
VOLUME 94 | ISSUE 47
Prop 120 will drop property taxes — at least for some Measure is one of 3 on Colorado’s statewide ballot BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN
Trees in Denver’s City Park trees frame a view looking west over Ferril Lake, with downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains beyond. The park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, helps cool and oxygenate the city with an urban forest of PHOTO BY TIM COLLINS more than 3,000 trees.
Who’s up in those City Park trees? Denver’s urban forest greets autumn and a magical new playground BY KIRSTEN DAHL COLLINS SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
In the fall, as the leafy giants
of City Park gird themselves for winter, they put on one last magnificent show of scarlet, russet and gold. Denver Parks and Recreation forester Ben Rickenbacker and his 12-person staff also gird themselves, because winter is pruning time. That’s when men and women, mostly young, strap on up to 30 pounds of equipment — including
chainsaws, handsaws, ropes, blocks and pulleys — and prepare to climb as much as 100 feet to minister to the needs of towering oaks, elms, lindens and the many other species that populate Denver’s urban forest. In the fall, deciduous trees slow their production of chlorophyll, SEE TREES, P4
13 Denver ballot measures, at a glance We know. There’s a lot on your ballot this fall BY ESTEBAN L. HERNANDEZ DENVERITE
to vote on who’s running the state or the country, Denver residents still have plenty of things to consider. This year’s ballot includes 13 measures, including eight put there by the Denver City Council
During a year when you won’t get
INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 9 | VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12
SEE BALLOT, P14
Colorado’s residential property taxes are already among the nation’s lowest, but a measure on the 2021 statewide ballot would drop them ever lower — for some. Proposition 120 would, if approved by voters, reduce the property tax assessment rates for multifamily housing to 6.5% from 7.15% starting in 2022. If you owned affected property valued at $300,000, you would pay $1,950 per 100 mills (a mill is a $1 payment on every $1,000 of assessed value) versus $2,145. The rate would also be reduced under Proposition 120 for lodging properties from 29% to 26.4%. If you owned affected property valued at $300,000, you would pay $7,920 versus $8,700. Proponents of the measure say a property tax reduction for multifamily housing could reduce rents and encourage investment to ease the state’s housing shortage. Lower property taxes for lodging property may allow businesses to expand and hire more employees. “Property values are skyrocketing right now,” said Michael Fields, who leads Colorado Rising Action, the conservative fiscal policy nonprofit SEE PROP 120, P11
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Denver has Halloween happenings for all ages P12