Property tax relief bill passes, saving residents hundreds, County Assessors worried for long term

SOUTHERN COLORADO, USA. (KRDO) - A property tax relief bill to address both residential and commercial property taxes, while also preserving school district revenues, was passed by the Senate Wednesday night. County Assessors in southern Colorado say despite the needed relief for homeowners, they're concerned about the long term effects it will have on local governments.

*This article's headline and contents have been updated throughout the day, Wednesday, May 8, 2024, to include details of the status of the bill, up to its passing by the Senate.*

KRDO13 spoke with the City of Colorado Springs, as well as the County Assessors for El Paso, Fremont and Pueblo counties, who all stated that they were still sorting through the numerous amendments that have been made to the bill since Monday, which were ultimately approved by the House and Senate during the course of Wednesday evening.

The Property Tax Bill for 2024, if signed by the Governor, knocks $55,000 off residential property values, before they are assessed, and will help property owners save hundreds of dollars a year. Lawmakers tout that it will save upwards of $1.3 billion overall.

For 2025 and beyond, the reduction instead turns into a 10% decrease of the property value for homeowners, but is capped at $70,000 in reductions, before the assessment takes place.

The bill drops the residential property tax rate by 0.01% from 6.8% to 6.7%. In 2025 that rate will dip down to 6.4%, and in 2026 will jump up to 6.95%. Meanwhile commercial property tax assessment rates would decrease 4% in the next two years, from 29% to 25%.

It also would create a separate tax valuation rate (7.15%) for school districts, which would have them differ from other tax districts, and residential properties. Lawmakers have stated that to offset lost revenue in the next year due to the reductions the bill would backfill school districts, ensuring that public schools remain fully funded, one of the main goals of the Governor 2024-2025 budget.

County Assessors in southern Colorado, like Stacey Seifert for Fremont County, are worried about the long term impacts the reductions would have on city and county government services, and special tax districts like those for fire, water, recreation and libraries, due to those cuts.

"When you're talking about ten years over a length of time with that reduced revenue, it's going to be difficult, and it's going to be difficult for those entities to provide the services that they provide." explained Seifert, who stressed that the bill's cap of 5.5% in property tax revenues will also contribute to that concern.

Assessors say that with the school districts being assigned the separate 7.15% rate from residential and non-school districts, it's now going to cost counties across the state potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, and multiple months, to have their assessment programming updated to accommodate two separate databases.

"The issue comes in in the implementation, which is going to be horrendous." added Seifert, who explains that due to the amount of time it would take vendors to adjust their assessment programs, it will likely make their deadlines for 2024 assessments narrow.

It's issues that Assessors like Frank Beltran in Pueblo County, feel could have easily been solved, with more input from those in their positions across the state.

"The committee... and the bill sponsor apparently just didn't ... use any of our, any of our recommendations, or any of our concerns. They listened, but nothing happened." explained Beltran, who says that a committee comprised of over 20 members within the capitol, included just two county assessors from Denver and Weld county, to relay their concerns.

The bill and the several amendments that were made this week, were approved by the House Wednesday afternoon, before being passed by the Senate later Wednesday night. It marked the end of the legislative session in 2024 with an exclamation point for the legislators.

Assessors say their next steps are to communicate with their vendors to begin re-programming for the new changes, and to prepare for their assessments later this year.