Dear Bob,
In the final days of session, legislators are trying to pass a bill that would prevent voters from approving permanent property tax cuts on this year’s ballot. This unprecedented, last-minute effort is a clear attempt to sabotage a vote of the people before it even happens.
Our ballot measure, Initiative #27, would cut property taxes by 9%. With homeowners facing steep property tax increases because of their new valuations - and with government flush with money – this $1B cut is needed to help families across the state.
But some legislators want to stand in the way of this ballot measure. One senator even admitted that he thinks the ballot measure will pass – which is why he supports the bill to thwart it. He thinks that he knows better than voters. Too many legislators share that view.
Please read the Gazette editorial below – and then contact your legislator immediately and tell them to vote NO on SB-293. If you aren't sure who your legislators are, click here to find out.
Best Regards,
Michael Fields
Executive Director
Colorado Rising State Action
|
by The Gazette Editorial Board | The Denver Gazette | June 4, 2021
"It’s not the first time the General Assembly has tried to pull a fast one on the electorate — by way of an end run on what voters enacted at the ballot box. But it might be the first time lawmakers have connived to get away with it in advance. That’s right, before the public even has had a chance to weigh in.
"As reported in Thursday’s Gazette, a bill just introduced late in the 2021 legislature — and being fast-tracked through committees at press time — would change the way real property is classified for taxation in Colorado. It would conjure up new categories of property and new assessment rates to go with them. The purpose? To short-circuit a citizens petition drive to cut Colorado’s soaring property taxes by $1.03 billion on next fall’s ballot. Lawmakers fear the ballot issue would prove popular with voters in November, so they’re trying to sabotage it now.
"It’s complicated and obscure stuff — no doubt something that the politicians behind this scheme hoped the media would regard as a yawner if they got wind of it. But The Gazette got a hold of a draft of the legislation sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat, and Sen. Bob Rankin, a Carbondale Republican, and it’s an eye-opener.
"It would spin off the state’s two property tax classifications — commercial and residential — into a tentative five or maybe six new categories. That would pull the rug out from under the citizens ballot initiative, which explicitly pegs its cut in property taxes to the old classifications. If Hansen and Rankin’s bill is signed into law, it will reclassify much of Colorado’s commercial and residential property so that any subsequent tax cut won’t apply to it."
|
|
|
|
