DENVER — The special legislative session to reduce next year’s increase in your property tax bill ended more than a week ago.
Yet, property owners still cannot estimate how much their property tax bill might be next year.
For that matter, local governments haven't figured out the math yet either.
“Many of those local governments are asking that very question, how do we find out what the numbers are going to be?” Ann Terry, executive director of the Colorado Special District Association, said.
Terry knows the upcoming deadlines better than most. Several dates at the start of the new year will reveal the numbers needed to complete the property tax math equation.
“We’re hoping that by January 17, that you would be able to know what your tax commitment would be to your county or to your special district and to your school districts,” Terry said.
Several deadlines were pushed back by legislature in the special session.
“I was encouraged,” Terry said. “The governor said that they are having DOLA, the Department of Local Affairs, create a toolkit for local governments, so that they will be able to figure this all out.”
Normally, county assessors would have needed to certify the final valuation of all county property by Dec. 10. That deadline was pushed back to Jan. 3.
Property Tax Math Deadlines
Jan. 3, 2024 | The day that county assessors must figure out the new total assessed value of all properties in the county.
“They have to figure out the actual assessed value of the property in the county,” Terry said. “Their math problem is not going to be an easy one to get to.”
The special session changed this math.
Residential property owners will have $55,000 of their property value deemed tax-free and then the state assessment rate was lowered, which alters the equation to determine each property’s taxable value.
Jan. 10, 2024 | The day that special taxing districts need to have their mill levies figured out and their budgets finalized.
“Many of them have already had their budget hearings, they started that back in October. And so, what they would need to do is have a budget modification if they have to change their budget numbers,” Terry said.
Districts that make up your property tax bill include:
- School districts
- Fire districts
- Library districts
- Many others
The special session changed the property tax math, meaning local districts will get fewer dollars than if the legislature had made no changes.
The state will cover the gap of missing dollars for school districts, fire districts, ambulance districts and health districts.
Other districts, like libraries, parks and water districts, will not know for some time, how much of that gap, if any, that the state will cover.
“We don’t know what that looks like, when that will happen, when it will be calculated?” Terry said. “They will need to adjust their budget, and decide if they have to, either dip into reserves, or use something else.”
Jan. 107, 2024 | The day that counties and local taxing districts should have the math figured out for you to be able to estimate your property tax bill.
Or you could wait until the bill shows up your mailbox.
Taxing districts can lower the mill levies, taking in fewer dollars, but still more than the year before. In the last 10 years, 690 of the more than 4,000 special taxing districts have lowered their mills, and sometimes multiple times in those 10 years.
“They could do a temporary mill levy reduction, which many of them have done for over the last 10 years,” Terry said.
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