The Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) discussed the matter of property tax ballot initiatives 50 and 108 during an Aug. 13 work session.
Under Initiative 50, if the total statewide property tax revenue is projected to increase more than 4 percent over the preceding year, a voter approval would be needed for the government to retain the additional revenue, according to the final text submitted to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
Under Initiative 108, funding for counties, school districts, water districts and other districts funded partially or fully by the state could be impacted by a $3 billion reduction in property tax revenue by a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes commencing on or after Jan. 1, 2025, according to the office. The initiative would reduce the tax assessment for residential real property to 5.7 percent of the property’s actual value.
Initiative 50 has made the ballot, while Initiative 108 is listed by the office as being under signature line review.
The topic was brought up by Commissioner Veronica Medina, who serves on the Colorado Counties Inc. (CCI) tax and finance committee.
Medina explained that the committee met a couple times from last year and into the beginning of this year, explaining the committee “came up with some other ways to help counties,” which she says was supposed to eliminate the two initiatives, “but it did not.”
She added that initiatives 50 and 108 are “still a threat.”
She went on to explain that in the last committee meeting, the committee discussed a letter from CCI addressed to Gov. Jared Polis.
She explained the letter basically agrees to “some different terms so that initiatives 50 and 108 don’t move forward.”
She explained that a special session will still be required to keep the initiatives from moving forward, “which is not the best outcome, because we don’t know what we’re going to get.”
She explained that last time the committee was promised initiatives 50 and 108 would be taken off.
“That didn’t happen,” she said.
Medina explained that the CCI tax and finance committee has agreed to some other terms.
“It still does not help those counties who have not de-Bruced, so we still, Archuleta County, would not receive any backfill,” she added.
She explained that the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, would stay in effect for the county.
“CCI will be sending out a letter, and I would like to be able to say, ‘Yes, the commissioners, Archuleta County agrees with it and we would like to sign our name to it,’ or we don’t and just see how many counties move forward,” Medina said.
She noted that during the committee meeting, the suggestion was well-received by most counties.
Commissioner Ronnie Maez commented that most counties in Colorado are already de-bruced, noting Archuleta County is one of maybe four counties that is not de-Bruced and still under TABOR.
Archuleta County previously de-Bruced for a five-year period, but a ballot question asking voters to extend that in perpetuity failed.
According to The Bell Policy Center, de-Brucing is “the act of eliminating government spending limit and allowing that government to retain and spend all of the revenue it collects under existing tax rates.”
The revenue cap is part of TABOR and reduces the state’s ability to raise revenue and invest more funding into the priorities that Coloradans care about, The Bell Policy Center suggests.
Maez also noted that a portion of revenues generated from property taxes is retained by the state.
“So that hurts us. So, it doesn’t come back into this county right now as it sits,” Maez said.
Medina commented that if the initiatives go through, “it will hurt us more.”
“It will hurt us a lot more,” Maez added.
Maez commented that the county needs to de-Bruce regardless of if the initiatives pass or not.
“We still need to do both, I think,” he said. “If they pass, we’re screwed, and if they don’t, we’re still screwed and we’re still losing money.”
Medina explained that the initiatives do not solely affect counties, and that the initiatives affect other taxing entities as well, such as fire and EMS districts.
“It affects more than just us,” she said.
Maez noted that Archuleta School District and Pagosa Fire Protection District are currently de-Bruced.
Medina noted that Initiatives 50 and 108 will still affect those entities “negatively,” despite being de-Bruced.
Commissioner Warren Brown noted that the initiatives would cap the entities’ tax rate at 4 percent.
“This was dirty pool, in my opinion,” Brown added.
He explained that when the CCI board reviewed the presented legislation, “we were very clearly told that 108 and 50 would come off the books if we supported a different bill.”
“It’s not unlike standard governmental writings, just what you see in the first paragraph is pretty, but the further you read the uglier it gets,” Brown said.
He indicated that he is personally in support of CCI’s effort to have the initiatives removed.
“I would like to sign onto it,” Medina said.
Maez also commented that he is not opposed to signing on.
clayton@pagosasun.com
