Editor’s Note: This commentary first appeared in Colorado Newsline on July 23, 2024. It is republished here with permission under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Two conservative groups backing a 2024 ballot measure to slash Colorado’s property tax rates say they’ve submitted nearly 200,000 voter signatures in support of their initiative to the secretary of state’s office.
That total far exceeds the minimum threshold of 124,238 valid signatures required for Proposed Initiative 108, backed by Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern, to qualify for the 2024 ballot, where it would join Proposed Initiative 50, a companion measure supported by the same groups. Initiative 108 would cut property tax assessment rates beginning next year, while Initiative 50 would cap their future growth at 4% annually.
A nonpartisan state fiscal analysis estimates that Initiative 108’s property tax cut would blow a $3 billion hole in state and local budgets beginning in 2025, a shortfall that would rise in subsequent years, especially if Initiative 50 is passed alongside it.
In a press release, Michael Fields, president of Advance Colorado, called the group’s proposals a “common-sense plan to cut and cap Colorado property taxes.”
“We can responsibly cut taxes back to near-2022 levels, protect local services, and cap future tax increases so these massive tax hikes can’t happen again,” Fields said.
Advance Colorado is a so-called dark money nonprofit that has spent millions in recent years to influence state elections but is not required to disclose its donors. Colorado Concern is an influential business group governed by a board of Colorado-based corporate executives.
At 0.55%, Colorado’s effective property tax rates were the third-lowest of any state in the nation in 2021, according to data from the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. Since then, in response to a spike in home values, state lawmakers have cut assessment rates twice to drive the rate even lower, but Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern say it’s not enough.
If enough of the 200,000 signatures the groups submitted Tuesday are deemed to be valid by the secretary of state’s verification process, the measure will qualify for the November ballot. Initiative 50, which as a constitutional amendment must receive at least 55% of the vote to pass, was certified for the ballot last year.
City and county governments, school districts, fire districts and other local jurisdictions would be substantially impacted by the cut-and-cap plan. Three-quarters of the $3 billion shortfall for local taxing districts would be reimbursed from the state’s general fund and other sources, but that would in turn reduce the amount of state funding available for higher education, Medicaid and other services.
Supporters of bipartisan tax relief legislation passed by state lawmakers in May warned of the consequences of Initiatives 108 and 50, which Scott Wasserman, former president of the Bell Policy Center, said would be “disastrous.” State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican, said at the time that going any further with cuts to property taxes would result in “seriously crippling the state’s budget.”
About Author
