Judge Rules Cimarron Hills Fire Did Not Violate TABOR
An El Paso County judge has ruled that the Cimarron Hills Fire District did not violate TABOR and does not have to reimburse $2.6 million to its taxpayers.
A lawyer for the citizens who filed suit said he is disappointed in the ruling and said there could be grounds for appeal.
“There are several things I don’t agree with,” said Rick Shearer .”I have to talk to my clients about how we will proceed.”
In January 2010, TARGET 13 first reported that board members of the Cimarron Hills Fire District might have illegally raised the district’s tax rate in 2004. The current mill rate is at 11.11, when some claim it should be at 7.598. Even the fire district’s own lawyers said they believed the district violated the Tax Payers Bill of Rights, saying in a memorandum that raising the levy above 7.598 mills “subjects the District to a substantial risk of a successful TABOR challenge.”
The judge ruled that the district was able to raise its levy based on “growth and inflation,” and could have even raised it higher than it did.
“Reasonable voters would not understand that inflation and growth would be used to increase both the tax rate and the value of the property in the district each year.” said Shearer.
Cimarron Hills Fire Chief Matt Love said the lawsuit would have meant major cuts if it was successful.
“There were a lot of hugs,” said Love. “Today was a success for the department as much as it was for the community. We had six firefighter positions that were on the line because of this lawsuit.”
Love said the fire district stood to lose 60 percent of its budget, although he included an expected 15 percent reduction in revenues due to declining property values.
Taxpayers must file a motion asking the judge to reconsider his decision by November 7th. If they decide to appeal to the Colorado Court of Appeals the deadline is December 5th.
“We would, of coarse, hope that we can maybe lay it to rest since a court judge has ruled on it,” said Love.
It’s still not clear how the judge’s ruling will impact two ballot measures the Cimarron Hills Fire District has put on the November ballot as a back up plan in case citizens won the lawsuit.
Measure 5C asks voters to set the tax amount collected from citizens to $1,603,641, the same amount it collected in 2011. The other, 5D, asks for a one-time tax boost of $2.6 million, so the district could avoid refunding that money to taxpayers.
“Right now, it’s going to be up to our elected officials (the district’s board of directors) to decide, do we continue with those ballot questions and count the votes, or not,” said Love.
Love said whether the measures pass or fail, there should be no impact on taxpayers.
KRDO Newschannel 13 will continue to investigate potential impacts for taxpayers.
