DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis announced on Thursday that he would call a special session of the state legislature to address Colorado property tax relief. It's set to begin Monday, Aug. 26 at 10 a.m.
The governor said he's calling the special session in response to a pair of ballot measures — Proposition 108 and Initiative 50 — set to go before Colorado voters in November that he said would jeopardize funding for critical education services across Colorado.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, said the ballot initiatives would also defund fire response, health care, libraries, water infrastructure, municipal parks and recreation centers.
"Proposed ballot measures threaten to gut funding for K-12 and higher education, and Coloradans are counting on us to find a path forward that saves people money on property taxes while preserving these critical institutions," Gov. Polis said.
The governor's team and a handful of lawmakers have been working with proponents of the ballot measures for weeks to create a framework that would cap the amount at which school districts would be allowed to tax property owners, so long as supporters withdraw the ballot measures, Denver7's Brandon Richard reported. The last day to withdraw ballot initiatives is in early September, so the governor's goal is to come to an agreement before that deadline.
Gov. Polis said the framework would build upon SB24-233. During the regular session of the state legislature, lawmakers passed SB24-233 that allows homeowners to exempt 10% off the first $700,000 actual value of their property.
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Bipartisan bill would bring long-term property tax relief for CO homeowners
The exemption would work on a sliding scale as the property value increases above the $700,000 mark.“Let’s say you have a $1.2 million house, it knocks $70,000 off the value,” said Governor Polis. “If it’s a $400,000 house, it knocks $40,000 off.”
Colorado legislators have been scrambling since 2023 when homeowners were stunned with massive increases in property taxes after a historic bump in home values.
Ballot proponents pushed Proposition 108 and Initiative 50 to make more aggressive cuts to property taxes.
"Now is the time to work on further lowering property taxes, which have skyrocketed in Colorado in the last few years," Colorado Senate republican leadership said in a statement Thursday. "We are eager to return to the Gold Dome later this month and continue our efforts to bring permanent and substantial relief for Colorado’s taxpayers by lowering property valuation rates for both residential and nonresidential properties."
BREAKING: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis calls special session to address property taxes. The special session will begin on Aug. 26. @DenverChannel #copolitics #coleg
— Brandon Richard (@BrandonLRichard) August 15, 2024
"Whenever any ballot issue is on the ballot, you never know what's going to happen," Polis told Denver7. "And if they were to pass, it would be devastating for all the work that we're doing. It would lead to enormous cuts of funding in our schools, enormous cuts for community colleges and colleges. Road funding for counties would have to be diverted to backfill, so a lot of problems with these."
Gov. Polis said he would not sign any legislation passed during the special session until he gets confirmation from the Colorado secretary of state that Proposition 108 and Initiative 50 were pulled from the ballot.
Michael Fields, one of the chief proponents of the ballot initiatives and the president of Advance Colorado, said as long as lawmakers hold up their end of the bargain, he will uphold his.
"When you have leadership and the governor both come out in support of the measure with statements today, I feel like they're going to be able to keep their caucus on track on this and we're going to be able to pass the agreement as we've agreed on," Fields said. "And then that will lead to us pulling those measures."
Fields said for average Coloradans, it's going to mean property tax relief.
"What is means to homeowners is more relief. It means more relief for businesses too," Fields said.
It's the third special session Polis has called as governor.
In 2020, he called a special session to address the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2023 he called a special session on property taxes.
It's unclear how long the special session will last. Previous special sessions have lasted two to five days.
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