POINT/COUNTERPOINT: We need to cap property taxes
My March column for Colorado Politics, the Denver Gazette, and Colorado Springs Gazette
Below is my most March column with Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Denver Gazette. You can read it as it was originally published here.
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Our government — both at the county and state level — is enjoying record revenues. Is your family enjoying the same? While central planners cringe at their potential windfalls being cut down to reasonable levels, Coloradans rejoice. Homeowners deserve predictability in their property taxes, even if it means bureaucrats are left disappointed.
The proposed cap in property tax revenue was crafted to adjust to 2022 rates, plus a 4% increase. Our state and local governments will still collect billions of dollars more each year. With every tax cut proposed, we see fiscal notes (written by the same bureaucrats noted above) predicting the worst. Somehow, when these cuts pass (or when increases fail), our government continues to set records in revenue.
With that said, as my counterpart points out, the Colorado Constitution requires the funding of certain items, such as K-12 education. If progressives in the legislature are forced to “cut” anything, it won’t be essential services, it’ll be planned government expansion, pet projects and bloat. The state budget is expected to be around $43 billion to $44 billion this year, about a $10 billion increase since Gov. Jared Polis took office. Has your income increased 30% in that same amount of time?
What the ruling party is afraid of in the legislature isn’t cuts, it’s prioritizing.
Property taxes have increased about 25% during the last two years for Colorado homeowners. For those living on a fixed income, this increase has been consequential. I’ve never seen more posts on Nextdoor about an issue of taxation. Repeatedly, I saw local retirees questioning how they’d manage to pay for an increase they had no ability to predict or avoid. With the 4% cap on revenues, homeowners can rest easily knowing their property taxes won’t surge 15%, 20% or 25% in a single year.
The preliminary fiscal note for Initiative 198 may downplay the “economic impacts” of this policy change, but even it admits “Reducing assessment rates will increase the amount of after-tax income available for homeowners and business property owners to spend, save, or invest elsewhere in the economy.” You think?
Those billions that remain in the pockets of Coloradans will go far in stimulating an economy struggling under the weight of a regulatory regime that has sent our state tumbling down national rankings for business friendliness and cost of living.
If, by chance, the legislature wants to ask the voters to increase the tax rate, they can do so. Unfortunately, those on the left are never reassured by the prospect of asking voters for anything. As we’ve seen repeatedly, those in power will cleverly use any trick they can (see: fees) to avoid abiding by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and getting at your money. Why not do everything in our power to hold onto it?