DENVER — In four separate cases encompassing hundreds of commercial property owners, the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health restrictions on businesses did not entitle the owners to a lower property tax bill for 2020.
Eleven lawsuits across Colorado challenged the decisions of county assessors who declined to re-value commercial properties for the 2020 tax year. The requests came as governmental regulations shuttered businesses, restricted capacity or otherwise attempted to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Although Colorado law does empower assessors to consider "unusual conditions" and regulations affecting the use of land, including "detrimental acts of nature," the Supreme Court agreed in a handful of cases to answer whether the COVID-19 pandemic fell into that category. The answer was no.
"Whether COVID-19 is viewed as a virus or a pandemic, it did not resemble the natural events — earthquakes, floods, and tornados — that we consider acts of nature," wrote Justice Monica M. Márquez. "COVID-19 may have infected people who were on the property. But COVID-19 did not infect the property itself."
> Read the full story at Colorado Politics.
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