It was only weeks ago Gov. Jared Polis exhorted Colorado’s counties and other local governments to cut property taxes.

That was shortly after the bruising defeat of Proposition HH – the phony property tax cut Polis had championed on the Nov. 7 ballot – and right after a special legislative session that was supposed to cut Coloradans’ skyrocketing property taxes statewide after HH’s rejection.

To no one’s surprise, the Democratic-controlled Legislature came up short. It passed only token tax relief – even less than Prop. HH would have provided if it had been enacted.

Out of options, Polis sheepishly sent out a Nov. 30 letter to local governments urging them to reduce their property tax rates to offset soaring real estate values across much of the state. It was a feeble gesture – he wasn’t telling local governments anything they didn’t already know they could do without the state’s help – but it seemed earnest.

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And at least one such local government, booming Douglas County, took the governor at his word. Having previously resolved to cut property taxes by lowering the assessed value of property countywide, the Douglas County Commission ran its plan by the state board of equalization per standard procedure.

On Monday, the equalization board, which reviews property valuation to ensure fair and accurate assessments across the state, rejected the proposal. 

Douglas County officials were understandably furious.

Polis insisted that he was disappointed by the board’s ruling.

Yes, that would be the same Jared Polis who had appointed three of the board’s five members. The other two are appointed by the Senate president and House speaker, Polis’ fellow partisans. The speaker, in fact, chose herself as the House appointee for Monday’s vote.

All were among the architects of the Prop. HH’s tax hike disguised as a tax cut, and all were obstacles to more meaningful property tax relief during the special session.

One of them, Denver Democratic state Sen. Chris Hansen, weakly split hairs in defense of the board’s decision against DougCo, claiming the county “created an unequal approach and that’s totally different from tax relief.” He cited a hypothetical scenario – how a fire district, for example, that overlaps DougCo and another county, could wind up applying the same mill levy to property assessed at two different valuations.

So what? Douglas County only can provide property tax relief to its residents – given how the state has failed to provide tax relief to all of Colorado.

Douglas County officials are threatening legal action and contend the state board’s finding was illegal, beyond the scope of its authority.

County Assessor Toby Damisch said the board violated its primary function, which is to maintain valuation equity at the state level. Damisch notes he had presented the state board an analysis supporting reduced valuations based on a study of the real estate market showing DougCo had the highest increase in residential valuations in the metro area.

And as Colorado Politics also reported, DougCo Commissioner Lora Thomas pointed out how state Property Tax Administrator JoAnn Groff told the equalization board that Douglas County’s plan conformed to the law.

Coloradans cannot be blamed by this point for concluding that their rising property values suit the governor and Legislature just fine – and that they are getting the runaround in their rightful quest for tax relief. After all, the net effect of the status quo is to fill government coffers with ever more tax revenue.

The old expression, “Fool me once … fool me twice …,” comes to mind. But what are we to make of it all when the voting, taxpaying public is fooled three times in a row with promises of tax relief that never materialize?

Denver Gazette Editorial Board