Broomfield Taxpayer Matters

May 15, 2023

Welcome, and thank you for following Broomfield Taxpayer Matters.

This is a special edition focused on property taxes. We will provide you with information and resources to help you understand why your property taxes increased so drastically. This is a very long newsletter, but so important you understand what happened. Please read.

"The tax rate increases reduce economic growth; they shrink the pie; they cause more poverty, more despair, more unemployment, which are all things government is trying to alleviate with spending." ~ Arthur Laffer

Important: The Charter Committee will meet again on Monday, May 15, 2023 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the HHS building, 100 Spader Way. Enter the west entrance (across from the fire department headquarters) and look for the Heritage 2 Room.

Are You Stressing Over Your Property Taxes?

Have you received your Real Property Notice of Valuation? What are you feeling after seeing that your property taxes have increased in may cases in excess of 40% for 2024? Are you angry? Well, you should be!

Why did our property taxes increase, in many cases in excess of 40%? It starts back in 2020 with the repeal of the Gallagher Amendment.

In 2020, the Colorado State Legislature and the Broomfield City Council misled you with a ballot initiative to repeal Gallagher Amendment was passed by the voters. In Broomfield, the City Council doubled down with similar local measure called Question 2B. Was this a coincidence that the two ballot measures were similarly titled and both were about raising taxes?

While Broomfield's Question 2B was defeated, voters also voted to repeal the Gallagher Amendment as Amendment B was passed by the voters. The residents of Broomfield and Colorado are now dealing with the impacts of the Gallagher Amendment repeal less than three years later.

What is the latest "fix" from the Colorado State legislature to "lower your property taxes"? You will get to vote on "Proposition HH", or the "Reduce Property Taxes And Voter-approved Revenue Change" ballot initiative.

Broomfield Taxpayer Matters sounded the alarm on 2020 ballot initiatives. We will share with you we know about the 2023 effort to have you buy in to the largest property tax increase in Colorado history and convince you to give up your TABOR refunds at the same time.

We will also have additional information on our website, Broomfield Taxpayer Matters, to fill in the gaps from this newsletter.

Our Warning to Taxpayers In 2020

With the dueling initiatives in 2020, the Broomfield City Council put forth Question 2B "The Revenue Stabilization Act". They told you at the time that if it did not pass, we faced disaster. Our library would close, the fire department would fail, and critical infrastructure projects could be put off. You the voters confronted them about their claims, and saw past the smoke and voted against 2B.

During the Vote No on 2B campaign, it was shown how property taxes would have decreased if Gallagher hadn't been repealed. This graph shows the difference between the current 7.15% residential assessment rate (RAR, blue diamonds), what we thought it was going to be reduced to because of Gallagher (5.88% RAR, orange circles), and what it actually would have been (6.08% RAR, green squares).

(We will have example details on our website regarding the math behind Gallagher and how the Residential Assessment Rate (RAR) is actually set in the coming weeks.)

Also during the Vote No on 2B campaign it was suggested that passing 2B (and by extension, repealing Gallagher), that property taxes in Broomfield would go up. The projection at the time was that property taxes would go up 21.5%. Unfortunately, we were low on our projections, as we now know that is anywhere between 33% to 51% higher than surrounding areas.

What's Happened with Revenues and Spending Since 2020?

The short answer is - both are up.

Per Broomfield's budget numbers, Broomfield tax revenues have increase since 2020. The dark orange bars were from slide 43 of the City and County's 2021 Budget Presentation. The light orange bars were from slide 34 of the City and County's 2023 Budget Presentation. (RB > Revised Budget, B > Budget, PB > Projected Budget, F > Forecasted Budget)

Spending is also up Per Broomfield's budget numbers. The dark orange bars were from slide 43 of the City and County's 2021 Budget Presentation. The light orange bars were from slide 34 of the City and County's 2023 Budget Presentation. (RB > Revised Budget, B > Budget, PB > Projected Budget, F > Forecasted Budget)

What happened with the library being closed, and fire district failing, and critical infrastructure projects that were going to be put off? The reality is, each of these has moved ahead without missing a beat. The City and County of Broomfield's revenues and expenditures have continued to increase, and at a rapid rate.

The scramble to fix the fallout from the Gallagher Repeal

What happened between the repeal of the Gallagher Amendment and 2023?

There have been a few things attempted both through Propositions and Legislation:

2021 - Proposition 120 and SB21-293

A citizen’s initiative, Proposition 120, was attempted to be placed on the ballet in 2021 to try and limit the property tax increases for 2023 and 2024 for real residential property.
This Proposition would have reduced the Residential Assessment Rate (RAR) from 7.15% to 6.5% and would have allowed the legislature to retain $25 million from TABOR over 5 years to send to local government to make up for the losses.
Before the vote, the state legislature passed SB21-293 (see image below) changing the definition of residential real property to eliminate single-family homes and include only multi-family homes. This bill changed the ballot initiative language and proposition 120 lost. However, in this bill, they reduced the RAR from 7.15% to 6.95%, hoping you would give them credit for this tiny reduction.

Definition Changed SB21-293

Your state legislature passed this law to redefine "real property" to exclude single-family homes. As a result Proposition 120 failed.

SB21-293

2022 - SB22-238

In 2022, property taxes had begun to rise sharply and the legislature decided they needed to take further action so that you would keep them in office.
They passed Senate Bill 22-238 reducing property values by $15,000 before applying an Residential Assessment Rate (RAR) of 6.675%.
This bill resulted in a slightly higher tax bill than Proposition 120 would have done. Proposition 120 would not have reimbursed local governments for lost funds.
SB22-238 required to take money from you and reimburse local municipalities. They gave you some relief on the one hand, and picked your pocket with the other hand.

2023 - Still trying to fix their egregious mistakes

Your state legislators have realized that property taxes are going to skyrocket and so two bills along with 5 citizen initiatives were introduced at the beginning of this legislative session. They were hoping they could save themselves from your anger.

HB23-1054 would have kept RARs at around 6.922% but failed in committee along party lines with one democrat voting on the Republican’s side.
SB 23-108 attempted to make it legally viable for local municipalities to issue tax refunds. This option is already available in the state constitution. The bill wouldn’t have reduced the overall tax burden on you and would have taken your refund money from TABOR and given it to you as tax relief. The bill only applied to 11 of 64 counties.
Citizen Initiatives 35 to 38 would have capped property taxes at 3% per year or inflation rate, but would have also eliminated TABOR refunds. The initiative would have asked you to give up $3 for every $1 you save.
Citizen Initiative 21 would have capped property tax increases to 3% per year or inflation. It would also give us a $700M property tax break in exchange for $100M, from out TABOR refunds, to backfill local municipalities. However these citizen initiatives wouldn’t take effect until 2024.
At the last moment, in this year's legislative session, they threw together SB23-303. This bill, also known as proposition HH in the bill language gives you only two option: (1) a NO Vote to increase your property taxes by the largest amount in the history of Colorado, and (2) a YES vote will decrease your property taxes a little less than this largest increase and force you to give up TABOR refunds forever. We encourage you to read the bill, it is very complicated. There are also glaring errors with the bill.

Are you angry yet? Are you looking to push back, here are a few ways for you to get engaged.

1) Appeal your property tax bill

Your city council needs to know that you are not happy and they have no right to a 40% increase in your property taxes. The Broomfield Assessor's office has a great page to understand how to appeal your property tax.

2) Email your State Legislator and Jared Polis

They don't care about you and only want your money. Let them know their actions have hurt you. Your money is not theirs and your property is not theirs, IT IS YOURS.

Governor Jared Polis

Senate District 25 Senator Faith Winter

House District 33 Representative William Lindstedt

3) Write to Broomfield City Council for relief

Email the Broomfield City Council to drop the City of Broomfield portion of the mill levy. They have been spending like crazy. Spending is up 66% per person since 2017. They say they want to help people with affordability. They have given a rebate on senior citizens, they could pass a temporary ordinance to help you. They could give you a 4-year moratorium while your state legislature provides a real fix to the property tax crisis they created. They say they are leaders, they were on oil and gas, it is time to lead surrounding communities on affordability. Tell them to do the right thing for you.

City Council Information

City and County Happenings

May 16, 2023

Study Session - 6:00 p.m.

Agenda

STUDY SESSION

Broomfield Housing Alliance - 2023 Update

CONCEPT REVIEW

Concept Review - BHA (Broomfield Housing Alliance) Cottonwood Residential

STUDY SESSION

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May 23, 2023

Regular Meeting - 6:00 p.m.

Proposed Agenda

PC - Petitions and Communications (4)

4a - Proclamation Declaring June 2, 2023, as Gun Violence Prevention Day
4b - Proclamation Declaring June 2023 as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month
4c - Library Services One Book, One Broomfield 2023
4d - Proclamation Declaring Ueda/Broomfield Friendship Day
4e - Invitation to the Broomfield Trail Adventure on June 3, Spano Park--Palisade

CA - Consent Agenda (7)

7a - Approval of Minutes from the Regular Meeting of May 9, 2023
7b - Resolution 2023-70 appointing BOE arbitrators
7c - Proposed Resolution No 2023-67 Authorizing Permit for 2023 4th of July Fireworks Display
7d - Proposed Resolution No.2023-73, Appointing David Frieder to the Flatiron Improvement District Board of Directors
7e - Authorizing Annual Aggregate Spending with Eight Eleven Group, LLC for Professional Services

BA - Council Business (11)

11a - PH Broomfield Urban Transit Village Filing No. 23 final plat, PUD and SDP/URSP, Resolution No. 2023-74 and 2023-75-UR, and Right of Way Release/Vacation Destination Dr (ordinance 2214) 1st Reading
11b - PH - Ordinance No. 2204 Amending Certain Sections of Chapter 4-06-10 Write-in candidate affidavit Second and Final Reading

BURA - Broomfield Urban Renewal Authority (15)

11a, 15a - PH Broomfield Urban Transit Village Filing No. 23 final plat, PUD and SDP/URSP, Resolution No. 2023-74 and 2023-75-UR, and Right of Way Release/Vacation Destination Dr (ordinance 2214) 1st Reading
15b - 1STBANK Center OA