Elliott Wenzler/Sky-Hi News
Colorado lawmakers will return to the Capitol later this month to cut property taxes after Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday called for a special legislative session. It’s the second straight year Polis has called lawmakers into special session to address the issue.
The goal of the session, which will last at least three days beginning Aug. 26, will be finding a compromise with the advocates of two property tax ballot measures that, if approved by voters in November, could gut the state’s budget.
“The cost of inaction is too high,” Polis said in a news release. “We refuse to gamble with our schools, our economy, our future.”
During the regular session this year, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 233, which was intended to be a compromise with groups seeking to lower taxes. The advocates for initiatives 108 and 50 said the agreement still didn’t go far enough.
Initiative 50 would impose a 4% annual statewide cap on property tax revenue growth. As a proposed constitutional amendment, it would require 55% of voters’ approval to pass.
Initiative 108 would lower the assessment rate used to calculate both residential properties and commercial properties, decreasing property taxes by an estimated $3 billion in 2025. Most of that tax collection, which would otherwise go to local government services including school districts, would be required to be replaced by the state.
As Election Day nears, fears over the consequences of the ballot measures have heightened. Local governments and school districts have pressured the governor to call for a special session in the hopes those groups supporting the initiatives will agree to remove them from consideration if a new deal is struck.
Club 20, a group representing counties on the Western Slope, signed onto a letter calling for the special session.
“What we really want is a long-term solution,” said Brittany Dixon, the executive director of the organization, in an interview. “We don’t know that a special session could help with that, but I think it would be good if we were able to pull those ballot measures off. And, you know, really try to think through what the next steps are.”
Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern, the two groups supporting the initiatives, have said they will pull their measures from the ballot if there are a few modest changes made to Senate Bill 233.
Senate Bill 233 allowed for millions of dollars in property tax cuts, proposed a split assessment rate for school districts and other local districts and created a property tax cap of 5.5% for local governments, among other things.
A new compromise proposed to the state’s Property Tax Commission on Monday would have many of the same elements, with more property tax cuts and a slightly different tax cap. Legislators will have to consider the details of that plan during the special session.
Polis said he wouldn’t sign any bills until the groups have removed the measures from the ballot.
The ballot will be finalized by Sept. 9.
