By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance
Colorado legislators winnowed 13 property-tax bills down to just four during the first day of a special session Monday, but put a bill at the center of a governor-negotiated deal on a collision course with a constitutional amendment that could upend that deal.
In the most anticipated hearing of the day, the House Appropriations Committee approved a measure that would expand property-tax breaks passed at the end of the regular session in May and cap annual growth of property-tax revenue for schools and local governments. Passage of House Bill 1001 also would get Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern to pull from the November ballot a pair of more far-reaching property-tax-cut proposals that education and government leaders fear would result in draconian cuts to colleges, Medicaid and local health and safety districts.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie, the Dillon Democrat co-sponsoring HB 1001, said proponents of Initiatives 50 and 108 agreed in a letter to yank their initiatives and forego further property-tax ballot measures for six years if the bill passes without major changes. But at roughly the same time McCluskie was announcing that to House Appropriations members, Democrats on the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee were advancing a proposal that could run afoul of that agreement.