Despite common misperceptions about funding, county needs remain

TAXES

Wh ether you’ve been a resident of Arapahoe County for a couple months or your entire life, you’ve likely realized that this community provides the best of everything Colorado has to o er. From babies to boomers and beyond, our residents put down roots, raise families, start and run businesses, and embrace the endless opportunities and amenities that make Colorado so unique. But like many things in life, these opportunities come with their fair share of challenges.

As one of your County Commissioners, I want to continue seeing Arapahoe County residents thrive and prosper. My primary goals have always been to maintain a safe and secure environment for our residents, ensure tra c congestion and road construction disruption is kept to a minimum, and to manage growth responsibly within the County. With some forecasts showing that we could add as many as 120,000 new residents by 2030, it will be increasingly di cult to achieve these goals.

As I mentioned during last month’s telephone town hall, my fellow commissioners and I realize there is a perception among many residents that the County has a surplus of revenue, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite recent news about increased property tax assessment rates, Arapahoe County only receives a small portion of that revenue. In fact, the County only receives 13 percent of your property tax bill. e remaining 87 percent of tax revenue is distributed to the more than 420 special districts in the County— things like schools, re districts, recreation and library districts, as well as cities and towns.

Let me put this into perspective… if an average home valued at $500,000 has a property tax bill of about $3,400, the County only retains about $430 to provide critical services that you expect, such as public safety and road maintenance. at’s a small amount to cover such services. And because the County adheres to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, our revenue growth has been restricted in recent years to around 5 to 7 percent year over year, depending on several factors. TABOR restrictions limit the County’s ability to do what it needs to do daily, including many of the services residents rely on from their County government.

Arapahoe County was fortunate during the pandemic to see one-time infusions of emergency federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to provide critical services, such as piloting homelessness programs, absorbing in ationary cost increases, and xing critical infrastructure issues over the past few years. While these one-time funds have gotten us through a rough time, they are not sustainable, as ARPA dollars will end in 2025. But the need for these critical services remains.

Many residents are not aware of these challenges because the County continues to apply ‘BandAids’ to problems – such as deferring important road and facility projects – but that approach will not continue to work. In fact, the County’s ve-year infrastructure action plan, which primarily focuses on maintaining existing infrastructure, is historically underfunded by $15 million annually. at underfunding has resulted in a decline in overall conditions.

Coincidentally, while residents might not be fully aware of the County’s funding challenges, a recent poll revealed what residents value most: repairing and improving infrastructure, preventing abuse of children and vulnerable adults, and improving public safety by attracting, retaining and training more law enforcement o cers. I couldn’t agree more with these top priorities, but despite a long record of responsible budget management and good scal stewardship, the County faces intensifying hurdles to continue meeting the needs of our residents.

As we clarify our vision and gauge citizen input, we will also work closely with all elected o cials in the County, as a successful vision for Arapahoe County relies on the vision and priorities of the entire County. Our residents’ voices are absolutely critical to guiding future decisions by the County. We welcome your input and encourage you to look for future telephone town hall events at www.arapahoegov.com/townhall, follow us on social media, or subscribe to e County Line newsletter to stay informed and get involved.

Je Baker serves on the Arapahoe County Board of County Commissioners representing District 3, which includes portions of the cities of Centennial and Aurora, the Town of Fox eld, the towns of Bennett and Deer Trail and unincorporated eastern Arapahoe County.