The Colorado Senate gaveled in Thursday morning and quickly gave final approval to a much-heralded property tax deal, ending a special session aimed at stopping a pair of ballot initiatives that would enact deeper cuts.
The legislation now goes to Gov. Jared Polis for his signature — and is expected to prompt the conservative and business backers of initiatives 50 and 108 to withdraw them from the ballot.
The Senate approved the compromise bill, House Bill 1001, handily on a 30-4 vote on the special session’s fourth day. Sens. Mark Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican, and Democratic Sens. Nick Hinrichsen, Sonya Jaquez Lewis and Lisa Cutter voted in opposition.
On Wednesday evening, before the Senate took an initial voice vote on the bill, Hinrichsen, from Pueblo, said “working class Coloradans have been a pawn of this process,” echoing concerns voiced by other Democrats in recent days about state officials’ negotiations with the initiatives’ supporters.
Polis, who helped craft the deal, has said he would will sign it once Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern officially yank the measures from November’s ballot. As a bit of intrigue, the backers said they’d pull them once the bill has been signed, creating the potential for a small bit of drama in coming days.
The bill will cut property taxes by about $254 million statewide and builds off an earlier $1.3 billion cut signed into law in May. One analysis, by the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a progressive think tank, estimates the average homeowner will see a modest additional property tax decrease of $62 in the next tax year, and about $179 in the 2026 tax year. That analysis also estimates that 62% of the relief in the bill will go to nonresidential property.
Ahead of the final vote, Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and architect of this bill and several other property tax measures in recent years, said the deal had been the culmination of nearly a decade of work to change the state’s property tax code.
He also repeated his objection to people who have characterized the special session as driven by a backroom deal. That charge has been widespread, including from other legislators.
The deal was unveiled publicly earlier this month, in a presentation by the governor’s budget director, after its terms had already been agreed upon with legislative leaders and the ballot initiatives’ supporters. It was then turned into legislation.
Hansen also argued that passing the bill would end the yearslong standoff over property tax policy.
“We have ended a cycle of destructive ballot initiatives,” Hansen said.
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