4 minute read
Thomas concerned Prop. HH will impact county budget
BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
One of Douglas County’s elected leaders is sounding the alarm about the potential impact of Proposition HH, a proposal Colorado voters may see on their ballots in November.
e proposition was pushed by state Democrats in response to a wave of impending property tax bill hikes.
Among other things, the Democrats’ plan, according to the governor’s o ce, would cap the growth in local governments’ property tax collections, excluding school districts, based on in ation.
“ ere is a paragraph in this (plan) that caps county revenue at the in ation rate of 2022, which was 8%,” Commissioner Lora omas said during a Douglas County town hall on June 28.
e problem: State Senate Bill 23-303 requires county revenue to start where it last left o , according to omas.
Because Douglas County approved a $10 million tax — or mill levy — credit for 2023, Douglas County revenue would be starting at essentially a de cit if voters were to approve Prop HH, omas said. (Prop HH was proposed by the state legislature’s passing of SB23-303.)
“We are going to have to start our calculation of the increase in in a- tion minus that $10 million, and that means Douglas County is actually starting (at) a $7 million” de cit,” omas said.
In that scenario, the county would face cutting $7 million from its current budget for 2024, according to omas.
Douglas County’s expenditures in its 2023 budget totaled $580 million, according to the county’s adopted budget document.
If the county doesn’t see enough revenue come in, it would have to “lay people o ,” omas said at a June 13 speaking event in Highlands Ranch.
Leaders can opt out of limit omas later clari ed to Colorado Community Media that “there are di erent ways that we can reduce our costs without laying o people.”
“ ere’s various mechanisms that we can use — it’s not just going to be by laying o people,” said omas, adding that in the past, the county has put together “packages” so people can take early retirement.
At the June 28 event, omas said the county could look at “some spending programs, some early retirement programs or some reduction in manpower” to address the issue.
But even if voters were to approve Prop HH, local governments aren’t bound to abide by the revenue limits in the plan. e county could opt out of the limit and bring its revenue up closer to its current planned budget for 2024.
“ ere is a provision that would allow the commissioners to hold a meeting, explain to the public why this 8% increase was not enough for us and that we were going to increase the amount of revenue that the county was going to bring in,” omas said.
But “as one commissioner, I can assure you that this time of year, (with) what’s going on, I will not vote to increase the property taxes,” she added.
Prop. HH and TABOR
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 around the Front Range announced April 26.
In notably a uent Douglas County, residential properties saw increases between 30% and 60%, with a median of 47%.
and school districts. (Property tax rates are o cially called “mill levies.”) e o cial who heads Douglas County’s property valuation o ce, Assessor Toby Damisch, felt the potential tax relief was too small and took issue with the fact that the Democrats’ proposal would a ect TABOR refunds.
Property taxes partly fund county governments, but they also fund re districts, library districts and other local entities.
Because a drop in property taxes would a ect those local entities, part of the Democrats’ plan was to include “back ll” revenue to re districts, water districts, ambulance and hospital districts in areas of the state that aren’t growing as fast as others by dedicating a portion of the state TABOR surplus to back ll, according to the governor’s o ce. at’s a reference to Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which limits the amount of money that the state government can collect and spend, or save, each year.
Revenue above the limit — often called a “TABOR surplus” — generally gets refunded to taxpayers. TABOR is an amendment to the Colorado Constitution.
Ground-level ozone is invisible and the Front Range’s biggest air quality issue. Created from pollutants like car exhaust, ozone is a leading cause of respiratory problems.
Improving our air quality takes all of us, and there are many ways to help.
We encourage you to #JustSkipTwo car trips a week, mow your lawn after 5 p.m., don’t idle your car, telework a few days each week, and take the bus, bike, or walk.
Sign up for air quality alerts and learn more about the simple steps you can do to help.
SimpleStepsBetterAir.org
Colorado law requires assessors to value properties every two years, according to Douglas County’s website. e property valuation that homeowners recently received is based on June 2022 data, near the recent peak in the real-estate market.
So even though home prices have declined since then, property values re ect last year’s exceptional highs. And when property values increase, the tax bills property owners pay also go up — even if the tax rates themselves don’t change.
Democrats rolled out the Prop HH proposal to potentially blunt the impact of high property values.
What Coloradans pay in property taxes depends in part on the property values — such as the value of a home — and the tax rates set by local government entities like counties
What relief would look like Damisch provided an example scenario of the e ect that Prop HH, proposed by the state legislature’s passing of SB 23-303, would have on homeowners’ tax payments.
An example home in Highlands Ranch, valued at roughly $583,000 in 2022, paid a tax of about $3,700, according to Damisch.
Now, that property is valued at about $857,000. Under current circumstances, the home’s property tax payment would total about $5,200, according to the county’s data. at’s about a 40% increase from before.
Under SB23-303’s policies, that tax payment would fall to about $4,900, which would instead be about a 33% increase from before, according to the county’s data.
