Colorado legislative updates as property tax deal passes House

The Colorado General Assembly convened this morning for the third day of its special session on property taxes. It was called to provide additional commercial and homeowner relief as part of negotiations with conservative activists to avert deeper-cutting measures on the November ballot. The session will last at least through Thursday.

This story will be updated throughout the day.

Updated at 1:25 p.m.: After passing the primary property tax bill, the House then swiftly passed a more minor measure that makes permanent a property tax exemption for agricultural equipment. They then passed — by the narrowest possible margin — a proposed ballot measure that would require local voters to approve of statewide voter initiatives that affects property taxes.

Because that bill would go on the ballot, it required two-thirds of the House to support it. Democrats hold a supermajority in the House, with two more seats than the 44-vote threshold needed to advance the measure. Republicans opposed it, and one Democrat — Rep. Chris deGruy Kennedy — is absent. Another Democrat, Rep. Marc Snyder, voted against it.

That meant that every remaining House Democrat had to back the bill, which several had vocally supported as a way to prevent future property tax wars, for it to clear the chamber and head to the Senate. With voting winding down, three Democrats still hadn’t voted. Two eventually voted yes, leaving the decisive vote to Rep. Elisabeth Epps.

Epps, who in June lost her primary and will leave the legislature in January, at first pushed the “no” button, which would’ve killed the bill. House Speaker Julie McCluskie started to close voting, and Epps quickly changed her vote, ensuring the bill passed. It now moves to the Senate, where it faces an even tougher road: Senate Republicans have criticized it, and it needs at least one of them to support it.

Updated at 1:03 p.m.: The bill at the center of the Colorado legislature’s special session cleared the House shortly after noon on a 45-18 vote, setting it up for sprint through the Senate.

House Bill 1001 would deliver another reduction in the state’s assessment rate, adding about $254 million to the $1.3 billion cut to statewide property tax collections that Gov. Jared Polis signed into law in May. The assessment rate, along with local mill levies, affects how much money property owners owe in taxes.

If HB-1001 becomes law, most homeowners would see an additional cut of less than $100, compared to the roughly $400 savings for the owner of a typical $700,000 home under the spring legislation.

More important to legislative leaders and Polis, the new bill is the keystone to a deal to pull initiatives 50 and 108 from November’s ballot — that is, if the bill that passes aligns with the framework negotiated by the elected officials and the conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado and the business-oriented group Colorado Concern.

It went through relatively minor changes in the House of Representatives, where Democrats hold a supermajority, as separate bills pushing progressive priorities died.

Progressive Democrats cast the majority of the no votes following a series of speeches criticizing the process. But bipartisan support ensured a majority.

“This is a deal that was drafted and stakeholded in the backroom by people who will never have to answer for the outcomes,” said state Rep. Stephanie Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat. The groups that negotiated the deal were afforded access that she and other lawmakers “could never hope to get,” she said.