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County officials call for ‘summit’ meeting to discuss property tax relief

Ellis Arnold
earnold@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Posted 9/20/23

As an impending wave of higher property tax bills continues to loom over the Denver metro area, Douglas County officials have put out a call for a meeting of local government leaders in hopes they …

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County officials call for ‘summit’ meeting to discuss property tax relief

Posted
As an impending wave of higher property tax bills continues to loom over the Denver metro area, Douglas County officials have put out a call for a meeting of local government leaders in hopes they may act to blunt the coming tax spike.
“The purpose of the summit is to provide a means to have an important conversation about the property tax crisis that has engrossed our state and, through the conversation, search for means to provide some relief to property owners that the state government would not provide,” said Toby Damisch, who heads Douglas County’s property valuation office.
“In this case, that must include discussing the lowering of mill levies wherever possible,” Damisch said.
A “mill levy” is the official term for a property tax rate, and local taxes are in the spotlight after homeowners around the metro area checked a notice from their county assessors this spring and saw that their home value had jumped by sometimes shocking amounts.
Driven by a costly real-estate market, those home values — as calculated for tax purposes — have spiked since the last time homeowners received notices of value two years ago. In Douglas County, residential properties faced increases between 30% and 60%, with a median of 47%.
The high increase in property values means families’ property tax bills could jump up next year.
That’s because when property values rise, the amount of taxes people owe goes up — even if local governments’ tax rates themselves don’t change.
Property taxes partly fund county governments, but they also fund school districts, fire and library districts, and other local entities.
In response to concerns about tax bills, the county government is taking the dramatic step of attempting to put many leaders of local government districts together in one meeting.
“We’re all working together to mitigate the impact of rising property taxes on our residents,” Douglas County Commissioner George Teal said during a recent meeting of county officials when asked what message he and his colleagues want to convey at the summit.
The county’s leaders don’t just want to hear perspective from officials of smaller local government entities — they’re also seeking to hear from impacted Douglas County residents.
“Our approach is meant to be inclusive, so much so that we are using our live town hall technology to engage participants, not only in the room but also by phone and online,” said Damisch, the county assessor.
The meeting on property tax issues is set for Sept. 25 in the county commissioners hearing room at 100 Third St. in Castle Rock, the building where county officials often hold public meetings.
What tax rates depend on
Getting local government entities to lower their property tax rates means talking about the potential impact on the budgets they’re planning for next year.
For the most part, many local entities are in the middle of budget-forming season, according to Damisch.
“That includes (the) Douglas County government,” Damisch said. “Most entities have to have their initial budget completed by mid-October, which is one reason the timing of this summit is so important.”
Making decisions about how high or low to set property tax rates — in other words, figuring out how much property tax revenue a government aims to collect — depends in part on what’s called a “certification of value.” That tells local government entities the total taxable value of properties that exist within their boundaries.
In other words, it tells them the total value that the local government’s property tax rate would be multiplied by, Damisch said.
These conversations also involve the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which limits the amount of money that the state government can collect and spend, or save, each year. Revenue above the limit — sometimes called a “TABOR surplus” — generally gets refunded to taxpayers. TABOR is an amendment to the Colorado Constitution.
But TABOR also plays a role in local governments’ tax revenue.
“TABOR restricts revenue, generally speaking, to growth plus inflation, so for a TABOR-restricted entity, if the increases in property (value) assessments are greater than what TABOR allows for in the resulting revenue, they are required to reduce their levy, at least temporarily,” Damisch said.
But “most entities have exempted from TABOR and can accept additional revenue received through an unchanged levy and increased (property value) assessments,” Damisch said.
That means many entities stand to take in more property tax revenue than they did last year without attempting to raise their property tax rates.
Role of Douglas voters
For most local districts, any votes by their boards of leaders to attempt to raise their property tax rate must have already occurred, according to Damisch.  
“This is not the time to propose a levy. To the extent that a district is asking for a levy increase by their citizens for this December, they would need to have it on the ballot by now and approved before that time,” Damisch said.
Not all levy increases require voter approval, Damisch said.
But, for example, the Douglas County commissioners cannot increase the county’s mill levy without voter approval, Damisch said.
“And neither can most authorities. However, that’s not the real issue this year,” Damisch said. “The real problem is allowing mill levies to remain the same. Doing so will result in tax increases on the public that are commensurate with the increases in property assessments. This is a central point of the summit.”
Timeline may depend on Prop HH
The county Assessor’s Office provided local entities an initial certification of value in August and will provide updated certifications at the summit, Damisch said. The districts are to receive a final certification in November, and their mill levy choices are due back to the county commissioners by the statutory deadline of Dec. 15.
If Proposition HH — a proposal Colorado voters are set to soon vote on — were to pass in November, all of the deadlines move back about two weeks, according to Damisch.
Democrats say they rolled out Prop HH to blunt the impact of high property values on Coloradans’ property tax payments. Republicans have criticized the proposal, in part arguing Prop HH would not offer much property tax relief.
douglas county news, property taxes in douglas county,

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