XPost: misc.taxes, alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.home.repair   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: lets.go.brandon@gone.net   
      
   Gov. Jared Polis has called the state legislature into a special session aimed   
   at building on recent property tax cuts and heading off a pair of ballot   
   measures that opponents warn would be disastrous for government services, he   
   announced Thursday.   
      
   State lawmakers are set to convene Aug. 26. They will need to meet for at   
   least three days to pass any bills — and in the dog days of summer, with   
   many soon leaving office, limiting the session’s length will surely be the   
   goal.   
      
   As pressure has built for a special session, officials in recent days have   
   outlined a potential $270 million in property tax cuts that they hope will   
   head off Initiative 50, which has qualified for the ballot, and Initiative   
   108, which is under petition    
   signature review.   
      
   Those measures are being run by the conservative advocacy group Advance   
   Colorado. They would cut tax bills by billions of dollars and put a strict cap   
   on property tax growth at the local level. The prospect has worried a wide   
   range of advocacy groups and    
   the mayors of the state’s three largest cities, who pushed this week for a   
   special session.   
      
   The initiatives, if successful, could save property owners hundreds of dollars   
   per year — at the cost of potentially billions of dollars from state   
   services as the state backfills some of local entities’ and schools’ lost   
   revenue. The alternative    
   deal on the table for the special session, at bottom, would save about $100 a   
   year for the owner of a $500,000 home with an average mill levy.   
      
   Polis said he would not sign any new legislation until the measures are   
   formally pulled from the November ballot, as Advance Colorado’s leader has   
   agreed to do.   
      
   “Whatever the level of risk is — whether it’s a 50/50 chance it passes,   
   or a 30% chance it passes — (these initiatives) would result in immediately   
   reestablishing the budget stabilization factor (for schools), defunding higher   
   education, gutting    
   local transportation funding and much more,” Polis said in an interview with   
   The Denver Post on Thursday morning. “If we can find a way to provide a   
   property tax cut that we can afford, (and) that protects funding for our   
   schools and special    
   districts, we should certainly take the opportunity to do that.”   
      
   In a statement, Senate President Steve Fenberg called the ballot measures   
   “reckless and irresponsible” and said they “pose an existential threat   
   to critical state and local services.” It was incumbent on the legislature   
   to do what it could to    
   stop them from going into effect, he said.   
      
   He and House Speaker Julie McCluskie, both Democrats, each said it was now up   
   to elected leaders to “govern responsibly.”   
      
   Republican leadership in the House and the Senate said in separate statements   
   that they looked forward to another opportunity to further lower property tax   
   burdens in the state.   
      
   If passed, the initiatives filed by Advance Colorado would lower property tax   
   rates across the state and strictly cap how much property tax revenue can grow   
   in the future. Advocates argue those moves would stop runaway property tax   
   bills if Colorado goes    
   through another boom in home values.   
      
   Michael Fields, the president of the Advance Colorado Institute, has promised   
   to pull the measures if lawmakers pass new reforms his group finds agreeable   
   — but they would have to do it by the state’s Sept. 6 ballot-setting   
   deadline.   
      
   In a news release Thursday, the group called the proposed agreement “a   
   permanent solution to Colorado’s property tax crisis” and said it   
   wouldn’t bring similar ballot measures in the future — as long as the   
   government did not change the    
   provisions.   
      
   “This property tax cut and cap agreement provides the permanent tax relief   
   that Coloradans have been demanding and will prevent future spikes in property   
   tax bills going forward,” Fields said in the release. “This is the result   
   of two years of    
   consistent pro-taxpayer advocacy to ensure that we can solve the current   
   property tax crisis for the benefit of Colorado families and businesses.”   
      
   Seeking long-term solutions   
   The special session will be the second one Polis has called in the past 10   
   months to address property tax policy. Lawmakers passed relief for homeowners   
   and renters in a four-day session last November.   
      
      
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