Colorado property value board may stop Douglas County commissioners from reducing home values
After home values in Douglas County increased by nearly 50% on average earlier this year, county commissioners decided to reduce values by 4% across the board to provide property tax relief. But now, a state board says "not so fast."
"It was almost about 200,000 more than what I had expected," said Highlands Ranch resident Debbie Charlton.
Charlton was one of the 33,000 Douglas County homeowners who filed a property value appeal this year.
"I did appeal it and I did actually get it reduced," said Charlton.
She was granted a reduction of about $30,000 but was still concerned about high property taxes.
In September, Douglas County Commissioners -- acting as the County Board of Equalization -- reduced all home values by 4%, providing a total property tax reduction of about $28 million.
"Four percent is a nice reduction. It almost brings me to about what I was appealing," said Charlton.
But that relief may be short-lived.
"To my knowledge, this is the first time a county has used this approach, so we're gonna be giving it a lot of scrutiny," said Democratic State Sen. Chris Hansen.
Hansen sits on the Colorado State Board of Equalization, which reviews the property value decisions each county makes.
"If the county commission in Douglas County wants to reduce their mill levies and provide direct relief to their constituents, totally fine. That is the job of the County Commission. What they did instead is just across-the-board reduce the values put forth by the County Assessor," said Hansen.
Hansen says the county's action will reduce revenue for districts funded by mill levies.
"We calculated that it's gonna take about $8 million out of school budgets in Douglas County, and that's just the schools," said Hansen. "That doesn't count the fire districts, the library districts, the water districts."
When it comes to the school district, the state will fill in the difference, but Hansen says that's not equitable for other school districts across the state.
DCSD is already one of the lowest-funded school districts in the metro area. A mill levy to benefit the district on November's ballot would also be impacted by the reduction.
"Not only does it undermine the current tax base, but it undermines the tax base for those ballot initiatives," said Hansen.
For Charlton, learning the 4% reduction may not come to pass is deflating.
"Now that I got my hopes up that it was at least four percent, to have that taken away doesn't feel good at all," said Charlton.
She and other homeowners will have to wait until December 18, when the State Board of Equalization meets, to know whether that four percent reduction is a sure thing.
The Douglas Board of County Commissioners declined to be interviewed but said in a statement, "Our residents demanded property tax relief. State law explicitly gives our Board the authority to act as we have, in collaboration with our Assessor, Toby Damisch. Our action is not only lawful, it is right and just."