We’re tracking the Colorado General Assembly’s special session on property taxes. This week’s special session is focused on a property tax deal crafted by legislative leaders, the governor and two groups, Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern. The two groups pledged to withdraw two property tax ballot measures should the deal win approval from the General Assembly. Follow us here.

This is part two, focused on the state Senate. The House blog from Wednesday morning is here.

6:45 p.m. The Senate wraps it up

The Senate has now approved both the deal bill, HB24B-1001 and the ag exemption bill, HB24B-1003. And that’s a wrap!

Back tomorrow for the final day, and final votes on the two bills. If none of the bills are amended tomorrow, they go to the governor and that will conclude the special session.

6:13 p.m. Hinrichsen filibuster wraps up after one hour, 15 minutes.

Now it’s on to Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Littleton. “We need to tell the truth to the Colorado taxpayers,” she begins.

5:40 p.m. Is this a filibuster? Maybe!

Apparently Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, D-Pueblo, does not like the deal bill. He has been speaking for about 40 minutes, largely on the issue of local control. He said the property tax debates of the last few years go against his deeply-held philosophies on the appropriate role of government, and the separation between state and local government. 

The legislature decided that SB24-233, the property tax bipartisan deal that came out of the last session, was the right way to go. Hinrichsen said he despised the bill but voted for it anyway. “Sometimes you have to vote for minimal harm,” he said.

And while lawmakers believed they had done what was necessary, all of a sudden, there’s another deal (the deal bill) in order to prevent the passage of the two ballot measures, Propositions 50 and 108. “I have faith in the people [and voters] of Colorado” and that he believes voters are smarter than they’re given credit for. 

Later, he added that he doesn’t want people in one district voting on issues for another. 

4:50 p.m. The Senate is back

They’re on to second reading debate on the last two bills. 

First up, the deal bill, which was not amended by the appropriations committee.

4:30 p.m. And then there was two

The Senate Finance Committee, at the request of its sponsor, put to an end HCR24B-1001, the concurrent resolution that would have gone to the ballot to ask voters to require citizen votes to allow local governments to spend property tax revenue that results from a statewide ballot measure.

The resolution was unlikely to pass the Senate; Republicans called it a deal-breaker and none were willing to give Democrats the 24th vote they would have needed to get it to the ballot.

The other bill, HB24B-1003, on business personal property tax exemption for agricultural equipment passed the finance committee on a bipartisan 4-3 vote. 

3:50 p.m. Last two bills on the schedule

The last two bills will be heard in Senate Finance at some point today.

3:30 p.m. This one was short and sweet

Senate Appropriations greenlighted HB24B-1001 on a 9-0 vote and is headed to the Senate floor, no amendments. Interestingly, however, is that the other two bills have not been through committee hearings yet, which begs the question on whether they will even get a hearing. (Once a bill has a hearing it is not required to have another).

Of note, there appears to be little love lost between the bill’s Senate sponsors, Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, and Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Weld County. 

Kirkmeyer told the Senate Appropriations Committee that it was no small feat to get everyone to the table on the deal. The conversations started back in April. “This is simply an extension of (SB24-233),” she said. She also informed the committee that Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern did submit written testimony and wants it on the record.

She then spoke about trust. A couple of years ago, ballot measures were removed from the ballot in lieu of a legislative solution that didn’t happen. When SB22-238 was passed, ballot measures from the two groups were pulled, she said. 

The No. 1 thing on her constituents’ minds is property taxes, she said. “I want you to start thinking about two-parent families” and the burden placed on them because the legislature has not yet kept its promise. The people of Colorado deserve a tax break, she said. “We promised it” with the 2022 legislation, the 2023 legislation, last year’s special session and earlier this year, she said. 

If Proposition 108 passes, SB24-233 is repealed; there will be no property tax relief in 2025 and everyone’s property taxes will go up, Kirkmeyer said.

“I don’t want to go back to my constituents and say, ‘We blew it,'” she said. 

Hansen appeared to take issue with her comments. He said he was proud to work with Kirkmeyer on the bill. That said, the work he did with “Sen. Bob Rankin was not a failure and I refuse to sit here and have it labeled as such.”

(These were the property tax bills he and Rankin sponsored in 2021 and 2022).

Hansen acknowledged those bills were not a long-term solution, blaming the backers of the two ballot measures for their refusal to compromise. 

Those were not failures, he insisted. They were one- and two-year bills to prevent giant spikes in property taxes, he said.

“I could not push back harder on that characterization,” he said. “I stand side-by-side with Sen. Rankin in celebrating those successes. We tried very hard to come up with a long-term arrangement” that was ultimately not available to lawmakers in 2021 and 2022.

“The proponents of 50 and 108 asked us to come back to the negotiating table,” and that created the compromise now before lawmakers, he said.  

Rankin was the ranking Republican member on the Joint Budget Committee at the same time Hansen served on that committee. 

3:00 p.m.

While county representatives and the education community are supportive of the measure, firefighters still oppose it. They didn’t get the amendment they wanted when it was in the House, waiting to see if that same amendment shows up here.

“We’re losing $3.5 million in assessed valuation,” the chief of the Colorado River Fire District said in a letter. “We will continue to provide services, but understand there is a continued impact of these reductions.”

2:30 p.m.

The audience (and those testifying) on the deal bill are considerably smaller than it was for the House hearing on Monday. There’s a good chance the senators have this on the floor to debate today. Testifying now is a panel of higher education and K-12 leaders, all in support of the bill. 

1:45 p.m. Senate Appropriations is live

The deal bill (HB24B-1001) is now being heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senate Finance is also slated to meet and could take up the concurrent resolution (HCR24B-1001). Appropriations will likely do the ag equipment bill, HB24B-1003.

Just as a note: While the appropriations committee usually does not take public testimony on bills, for the purposes of the special session it is the committee of reference for at least two of the bills today, meaning the panel will take public testimony since it is the first to hear the bills.

The Senate sponsors of today’s bills are Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Weld County, and Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver. Hansen is also the sponsor of the concurrent resolution. 

Committee chair Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, said he is “deeply concerned” this will come back on lawmakers.

“It’s bad in so many ways … and would the governor feel personally betrayed” if the conservative groups broke the deal? This was to Mark Ferrandino, the director of the governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting.” 

“Your word is your bond,” said Ferrandino, a former House Speaker and executive director of the Department of Revenue.

Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, indicated she has no confidence in the credibility of the two groups. 

Notably, no one from Colorado Concern nor Advance Colorado is testifying on this bill. They also did not testify on the measure when it was in the House Appropriations Committee.

1:00 p.m. What to expect

It’s likely to have less fireworks than what you saw in the House. 

Senators will start with committee hearings on the three bills still in play: HB24B-1001, the deal bill; HCR24B-1001, the concurrent resolution on local government control of property taxes; and HB24B-1003, a bill on business personal property taxes for ag equipment.

The first two are the most controversial. Progressive Democrats in the House launched a lengthy criticism Wednesday of how the bill was put together and who was involved, with one Democratic lawmaker calling it a backroom deal with wealthy oligarchs. 

After the committee hearings, the bills will move to the Senate for debate. One of the questions is whether that will happen today, depending on how long those committee hearings go. If the Senate doesn’t get to the debate today, it means the special session will be extended to Friday.