WEEK OF MAY 11, 2023
VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 23
FREE
County services may not be harmed by Polis property tax plan BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A tiger mural graces one wall of the newly opened Tiger Den Tea House in Highlands Ranch.
PHOTOS BY RACHEL LORENZ
Tiger Den Tea House starts with love of boba BY RACHEL LORENZ SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Vanessa Bui traces the genesis of Tiger Den Tea House back to her sister’s love of boba. Well, that and the entrepreneurial streak that runs in her family. “It started with Michelle’s obsession with boba,” Bui told Colorado Community Media. Her sister, Michelle Jankowski, is a fan of the chewy tapioca balls and the tea-based drinks they come in. Before the sisters decided to open their own shop, Jankowski regularly picked up a round of the colorful, cold beverages for herself and family members. Now, eight months after pulling permits and bringing in an architect to redesign the former PDQ Print & Copy shop in Highlands Ranch, Bui and Jankowski have opened Tiger Den. The 1,500-squarefoot beverage shop serves milk teas, fruit teas, smoothies, and alcohol-free mojitos with toppings like brown sugar boba and mango jelly. The tea parlor’s March 19 SEE TIGER DEN, P6
Owners Vanessa Bui and Michelle Jankowski opened Tiger Den Tea House, a shop serving boba tea drinks, noodle bowls and fried rice plates, in Highlands Ranch.
VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 14 | CALENDAR: 17 | SPORTS: 20
As pressure mounted on state lawmakers to intervene in Colorado’s expected spike in property tax bills, Douglas County officials worried that setting the cap too low could hurt funding for local government services. Politicians on the left and the right agreed that homeowners need relief as property taxes are expected to increase this year. Driven by a costly real-estate market, home values — as calculated for property tax purposes — have spiked since the last time homeowners received notices of value two years ago. Since then, residential properties in the Denver metro area typically saw value increases between 35% and 45%, a group of county assessors from across the Front Range announced April 26. That rise threatens to take a big bite out of families’ finances because even when tax rates themselves aren’t increasing, the amount that homeowners owe increases as the value of homes rise. If a proposal from Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Democrats wins approval from voters this year, the rise in homeowners’ property tax bills could decrease by double-digit percentages. The governor’s office provided an example scenario where a $600,000 home increased in value by 30% in the 2023 property valuation, which is based on June 2022 real-estate market values, compared to the 2021 valuation, which was based on June 2020 market values. Factoring in the recent property tax relief law known as state Senate Bill 22-238, that home would see a 24% increase in its property tax bill, according to the governor’s office. If Polis and the Democrats’ proposal gets the OK from voters, the increase could fall to as low as 12%, according to the governor’s office. But the amount of relief won’t play out the same across the state, and the picture could look especially different in Douglas County. “I don’t believe property tax bills will be only going up 12% in Douglas County,” said Commissioner Lora Thomas, one of Douglas County’s elected leaders. SEE TAXES, P9
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