We need more humanities education immediately. Here’s why. Three men who had to be STEM majors, along with Gov. Jared Polis, wrote the property tax reduction bill. This bill is inscrutable to most people. If someone educated in the humanities tradition was in charge of the bill writing team, the bill would be entirely different.

Here are some examples of the obscurity of “Reduce Property Taxes and Voter-approved Revenue Change,” SB23-303. As context, the purpose of the bill is to re-set property tax calculations to reduce the tax amount that comes with the acceleration in property values over the last three years. But in the ultimate “kick the can” game, the three sponsors and the governor wrote the bill to take the changes to voters in November.

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SB23-303, Reduce Property Taxes and Voter-Approved Revenue Change, sponsored by Senate President Steve Fenberg and Sen. Chris Hansen and Rep. Mike Weissman will, among other items:

• Establish a limit on specified property tax revenue for local governments, excluding those that are home rule and school districts, that is equal to inflation above the property tax revenue from the prior property tax year (limit).
• Create additional temporary reductions for non residential real and personal property and for the 2023 property tax year for lodging property, property listed under any improved commercial subclass code, and all other nonresidential property, excluding agricultural property and renewable energy production property, taking the assessment rate down from 27.9% to 27.85%; for renewable energy agricultural land, which is a newly created subclass of agricultural property, reduce the assessment rate from 26.4% to 21.9%.

So how much is that?

• Reduce the valuation of residential real property for 2023 from 6.765% of the amount equal to the actual value minus the lesser of $15,000 or the amount that causes the valuation to be $1,000 (alternate amount) to 6.7% of the amount equal to the actual value minus the lesser of $40,000 or the alternate amount.

Really?

For the 2024 property tax year, reduce the valuation as follows:

• For multi-family residential real property, the valuation is reduced from 6.8% of the actual value to 6.7% of the amount equal to the actual value minus the lesser of $40,000 or the alternate amount; and
• For all other residential real property, the valuation is reduced from an estimate of 6.98% of the actual value to 6.7% of the amount equal to the actual value minus the
  lesser of $40,000 or the alternate amount.

Huh?

For the 2025 through 2032 property tax years:

• Reduce the valuation of multi-family residential real property and primary residence real property, including multi-family primary residence real property, from 7.15% of the actual value to 6.7% of the actual value minus the lesser of $40,000 or the alternate amount;
• Reduce the valuation for qualified-senior primary residence real property, including multi-family qualified-senior primary residence real property, from 7.15% of the actual value to 6.7% of the amount equal to the actual value minus $140,000 or the alternate amount; and
• Reduce for all other residential real property, the assessment rate from 7.15% to 7.1%.

Are they blowing smoke?

Since the bill will lower property tax revenue for various governmental entities that count on property taxes for their ongoing operations, the state will have to do some “backfill.” Here’s how the bill describes the backfill mechanism. It will:

• Specify that the amount of revenue lost for a property tax year is based on a local governmental entity’s mill levy for the 2022 property tax year, excluding specified mills;
• Include the additional property tax revenue reductions that result from the bill in the backfill for the 2023 property tax year;
• Eliminate the maximum amount of the backfill for the 2023 property tax year that is a refund of excess state revenues;
• Extend the backfill for the 2024 through 2032 property tax years for the valuation reductions in the bill, but making a local governmental entity that has an increase in real property total valuation of 20% or more from the 2022 property tax year ineligible for the backfill;
• Create the local government backfill cash fund, which includes a $128 million general fund transfer, and requiring the money from the fund to be used to backfill revenue to local governments beginning with the 2024 property tax year; and
• Beginning with the 2024 property tax year, proportionally reduce the amount that each eligible local government receives, if necessary to avoid exceeding the total amount that is available for the backfills statewide.

The ballot initiative is listed as Proposition HH. This is the initiative:

“SHALL THE STATE REDUCE PROPERTY TAXES FOR HOMES AND BUSINESSES, INCLUDING EXPANDING PROPERTY TAX RELIEF FOR SENIORS, AND BACKFILL COUNTIES, SCHOOL DISTRICTS, WATER DISTRICTS, FIRE DISTRICTS, AMBULANCE AND HOSPITAL DISTRICTS, AND OTHER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND FUND SCHOOL DISTRICTS BY USING A PORTION OF THE STATE SURPLUS UP TO THE PROPOSITION HH CAP AS DEFINED IN THIS MEASURE?”

Just so everyone is clear, this is the cap: “For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, <the cap is> an amount equal to the excess state revenues cap for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, adjusted for inflation plus one percentage point, the percentage change in state population, the qualification or disqualification of enterprises, and debt service changes.” The initiative follows this basis for future years, with inflation and population change as the variables, until 2033.

A person with a humanities background would attack the problem thus: “Your personal residential property tax bill and commercial property tax bill or any property tax bill must not increase more than 8% per year up to 2033. If the increase in your commercial or residential property or any other property value is less than 8%, your bill will reflect the lesser amount.”

Let’s vote on that!

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.