By Sam Nizam

Colorado needs more transparency and accountability in government… at all levels. And during the 2025 legislative session, one such bill made it through the process, improving transparency at the closest local level: metro districts. House Bill 25-1219, sponsored by Reps. Jacque Phillips and Carlos Barron and Sens. Kyle Mullica and Lisa Frizell, will help residents and property owners understand more fully what is happening in their metro districts.

Simply stated, metro districts help to finance the things communities need like streets and sewer, and the amenities residents love like trails and parks. You can’t have a house without a road leading to it and a sewer line to do, well, we all know what sewer lines do.

With more than 2,400 metro districts statewide, metro districts are widely used, but they are not widely understood. Enter House Bill 25-1219, aptly titled “Requirements for Better Understanding Metro Districts.” In this important piece of legislation, the bill sponsors identified important ways metro districts can better serve their constituencies. Most requirements are sensible and seemingly easy to accomplish… they just needed leaders to acknowledge their importance and make them into law.

For example, under previous law, metro districts created after the year 2000 must have websites that include important information about the budget, board meetings, annual reports, etc. Implementing House Bill 25-1219 adds to that list of requirements to include some valuable information for residents, including:

• The date, time and location of the annual public meeting;
• An explanation of what a metro district is, its services, debt and public infrastructure, and how residents can serve on its board;

• The names of the governmental entities that overlap the metropolitan district’s boundaries;
• The name of the county or municipality where the metro district must file its annual report; and
• The name and contact information of someone who residents can contact with questions or concerns about the services of the district.

Another important requirement of HB 25-1219 is mailing or emailing a notice of the annual townhall meeting to the residents and property owners. Though simplistic, this allows busy moms and dads who want to be engaged in their community to know when they can participate in a district meeting and learn more about what’s going on in their backyard. The hope is more residents run for the important metro district board seats.

The legislation also adds to the disclosure requirements for a person living in a district when they are selling their home. Potential buyers are now given the opportunity early in the process to review important information about the district, including what the total mill levies are for the district during the year of the sale and what that equates to in dollars. Further, the disclosure has to give more than just the metro district taxes, it has to give an estimate of the full amount of property taxes on that property in dollars.

Finally, this bill provides significant protection for residents in state law and not just through local ordinance about the time frame taxes can be levied for debt service. Now, all city and county approved metro district service plans must have a maximum term for imposing a debt mill levy. In other words, the service plan must include a date certain that the bonds that are used to finance the public infrastructure will be paid off, ensuring residents aren’t paying down the debt in perpetuity.

Sometimes in life and government the solutions are not difficult, they just need leaders who are willing to step forward and say they are important. That is what Reps. Phillips and Barron and Sens. Mullica and Frizell did with this important metro district legislation. It’s pragmatic and meaningful solutions — government leadership at its best.

Sam Nizam is a former councilmember for the City of Thornton and has proudly lived and worked in the Thornton community for over 25 years.