While Loretta is a member of the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC), these articles reflect Loretta's personal understanding and do not represent positions of the CBAC.
The Colorado State Legislature passed statewide changes to property tax calculations for 2023 and 2024. The simple formula (Actual Value x Assessment Rate x Mill Levy = Property Taxes Due) was slightly modified.
Colorado Senate Bill 22-238 and Colorado Senate Bill 23B-001 impacted the actual values and assessment rates for 2023. At a very high level, the first bill reduced the assessed actual value of residential properties by up to $15,000 and commercial properties by up to $30,000 for property tax calculations. It also lowered certain assessment rates. The second bill instructed assessors to decrease the residential property actual value by up to $55,000 just for 2023 taxes due in 2024 and modified assessment rates slightly. So, effectively the Actual Value was now the Assessed Value less any adjustment. (Colorado Senate Bill 23B-004 was introduced to provide additional property tax relief but did not pass.)
Colorado Senate Bill 24-233 extended 2023 rates and the adjustments to the actual value into 2024. The formula for 2023 and 2024 taxes due in 2024 and 2025 became:
Property Taxes Due = (Assessed Value – any applicable adjustment) x Assessment Rate x Mill Levy
The goal of the 2023 and 2024 changes was to reduce the statewide residential property tax revenues by $700 million across 2023 and 2024 (See the language for 39-1-101.4 on page 5 of Bill 22-238). To minimize the impact to local governments, the state was required to provide varying levels of reimbursement based on things like city population. I will not attempt to describe the reimbursement rules here, but they are riveting reading in the bills themselves.
See the earlier articles in the "Understanding the Budget" series!
