Colorado's lawmakers to begin 2024 bills hearings this week

This week marks the beginning of bills hearings at the Colorado legislature and among the bills lawmakers will consider is one dealing with “de-Brucing.”

Currently, 51 out of 64 counties, including the counties in northeastern Colorado, have obtained permission from voters to retain tax revenue paid to the counties when it exceeds revenue limits imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Those permissions for the northeastern counties was granted by voters between 1994 and 2004, with Phillips County the first among those counties to obtain voter approval and Yuma the last, in 2004. 

A measure scheduled for its first hearing in the House on Thursday will try to do a reset on that permission.

House Bill 1026 is sponsored by Representative Rod Bockenfeld, a Watkins Republican. The measure points out that since TABOR was approved by voters in 1992, many local governments have successfully sought voter approval of revenue changes that allow them to retain revenue in excess of their TABOR fiscal year spending and property tax revenue limits.

Current law, the measure notes, does not put an expiration date on that permission, known as a waiver.

Under HB 1026, local governments would have until November 2029 to hold another waiver election, if the permission was granted prior to November 2020.

In addition to the 51 counties that have “de-Bruced,” (a reference to TABOR author Douglas Bruce), 230 out of the state’s 274 municipalities and 177 out of 178 school districts have also won that approval. All those entities would have to hold another waiver election. 

The bill is scheduled for the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

Lawmakers have taken more of an interest in revenue retention, with the increases expected in property tax revenue, the result of skyrocketing property tax values in most parts of the State. 

Property taxes in northeastern Colorado counties are expected to increase by 25 percent to 40 percent when those bills come due this spring.

A recent study by the Common Sense Institute, a free-market think tank, estimated that on average, Colorado homeowners could still see property tax increases of at least 25 percent.

That’s despite legislation passed by Democrats during the recent special session, which lowered the residential assessment rate for the 2023 tax year to 6.7 percent from 6.765 percent and allowed homeowners to exempt $55,000 of their home’s value from taxation.

The State’s Rural Jump Start program, which incentivizes new businesses to start in or move to rural, economically distressed counties in Colorado, is on tap for an extension through a bill sponsored by a cadre of bipartisan lawmakers.

House Bill 1001 seeks a five-year extension of the program that began in 2016 as a tax incentive program. In 2021, a grant program was added.

Tax benefits under the program include state income tax for the new business, state sales and use tax, also for new businesses, incentives tied to county personal property tax, incentives for municipal personal property taxes, and a state income tax incentive for qualified new hires. Under HB 1001, that portion of the program would be extended for five years.

The grant program, which is location-based, awards between $20,000 and $40,000 in matching grants. 

Under HB 1001, the grant program would expire in 2026, but for the next two years would have $150,000 per year for grants instead of $100,000.

Currently, Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick and Yuma counties are designated as rural jump-start zones (with businesses eligible for the $20,000 grant as well as the tax incentives). Morgan County is designated as a “Just Transition” community and as such new businesses are eligible for the larger grant. 

The program requires sponsoring entities in each county, which in northeastern Colorado are the economic development organizations.

In addition to extending the program, HB 1001 prohibits the state office of economic development from approving more than three rural-jump start zones in counties with populations under 100,000, which would impact all of the counties in northeastern Colorado.

The measure is sponsored by Reps. Megan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs and Republican Rep. Rick Taggart of Grand Junction.

The bill prohibits the Colorado economic development commission (commission) from approving more than three rural jump-start zones in counties with populations of less than 100,000 in any year, which would impact all the counties in northeastern Colorado.

Last week, Democratic lawmakers sponsored a resolution to name Jan. 22 “Roe v. Wade Anniversary Day.”

The resolution was presented in the House on Friday, and that drew Rep. Richard Holtorf, Akron to the microphone to talk about his stance on the issue.

“We talk about health care versus life,” Holtorf said. When his mother was pregnant with him, she had cervical cancer. Doctors advised her to get an abortion. “A woman had to make a choice between life and health care,” and his mother chose life for her child, he said. 

He continued with his story: When he was a young man in college, his girlfriend became pregnant. While he was away at ROTC camp training, she had an abortion over his objections as a Catholic. 

His girlfriend asked for financial help after he returned, and “I did what any honorable man who respects women would do and I supported her.”

A later girlfriend also got pregnant but gave her baby up for adoption, Holtorf said. “We made a choice. We chose life,” he said. Holtorf has a relationship with that young woman and with her son, he told the House.

As originally reported by the Denver Post, House Minority Leader Mike Lynch of Wellington was arrested for driving under the influence in 2022, speeding and for being in possession of a gun while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. 

Lynch, who was elected House Minority Leader about six weeks after the arrest, did not disclose it at the time to his fellow Republican lawmakers. 

He pleaded guilty in December 2022 to the gun charge and to driving while ability impaired. He was sentenced to 150 hours of community service and 15 months of probation.

He said he will complete the community service within the next month; the probation ends in June.

Lynch is one of 11 Republican candidates for the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Ken Buck of Windsor, who announced he would retire last month.