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This metro district charges 115 mills and is still behind on its bonds. A state audit found it isn’t alone.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

This metro district charges 115 mills and is still behind on its bonds. A state audit found it isn’t alone.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Homeowners inside the Riverdale Peaks II Metropolitan District pay one of the highest tax rates of any special district in Colorado. Their metro district levied 115.019 mills in 2024, good for fifth place on a list of eleven districts statewide charging 100 mills or more. That levy pulled in $428,566 in property taxes for the year. Riverdale Peaks II is one of 19 districts that told the state, in their own financial filings, that they have been or will be unable to make principal or interest payments on their debt as those payments come due.  It taxes its residents at more than 100 mills and still reports to the state that it can't keep up with the full payments on its bonds. That combination is the core finding o...
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Cherry Creek, Poudre among Colorado districts flagged for draining reserves
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Cherry Creek, Poudre among Colorado districts flagged for draining reserves

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice For years, the story of a Colorado school district in fiscal trouble has looked the same. Small. Rural. A few hundred students on the plains or up a mountain valley, squeezed by declining enrollment and a thin local tax base. This year the Office of the State Auditor put three very different names on that list: Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs 11, and Poudre. Three of the largest, most visible districts in the state, each newly flagged after missing two benchmarks tied to operating margins and a shrinking fund balance. The report, dated July 30, tracks the financial health of all 178 Colorado school districts across the three years ending June 30, 2025. It runs six ratios against each district. Miss two or more and you l...
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Douglas County Weighs Data Center Incentive as Front Range Restrictions Grow
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Douglas County Weighs Data Center Incentive as Front Range Restrictions Grow

By Nicholas Fogleman | The Denver Gazette At a time when Denver and Front Range governments are restricting or banning data center development, Douglas County commissioners are poised to approve a $19.3 million tax rebate agreement Tuesday for a new data center under construction in Parker. The contrasting approaches are occurring as the debate over data centers has taken center stage in Colorado and elsewhere in the country. Critics seek moratoriums or even a complete ban, citing worries about water and energy consumption, while proponents argue they bring in jobs and new revenue, not to mention their national security implications — America, they say, should not cede the battle for AI infrastructure dominance to global competitors. The proposed agreement would...
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Colorado Fire Departments Sound Alarm Over Staffing and Funding Shortfalls
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DENVER7, Approved, State

Colorado Fire Departments Sound Alarm Over Staffing and Funding Shortfalls

By Veronica Acosta | Denver7 LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A new statewide assessment found two-thirds of Colorado fire departments can't fund their full operations, and nearly 80% can't afford the equipment and staffing they say they need — a gap agencies like West Metro Fire Rescue say is now pushing them toward asking voters for more money. Colorado's fire departments are being asked to do more than ever, and a new state report shows most of them don't have the money to keep up. The 2026 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment, released this month by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), surveyed 122 of the state's roughly 340 fire departments and found that two in three — 66.4% — say their current funding isn't enough to run all of their department's oper...
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Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Inside the Golden Range project: How public land and taxpayer dollars shape affordable housing

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Seeing an “affordable housing” project from the inside. I wrote about a project to build so-called affordable housing on a weird little quadrangle of land up near Golden, the Golden Range project. The newsletter from March of this year is linked first below if you’d like to go review. After talking to their media person, I set a reminder to follow up later in this year to see about any new developments. The project was just in its infancy when I wrote about it before. If it was in its infancy in March, it’s now in its toddlerhood. We are still a long ways from the end, but I have some updates to share. As the title of this post suggests, this will be one of multiple updates on this project; its a great...
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Jeffco Schools Seek $135 Million Tax Hike to Address Deficit and Facility Needs
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, Local

Jeffco Schools Seek $135 Million Tax Hike to Address Deficit and Facility Needs

By Melanie Asmar | CPR News Faced with a looming deficit, Jeffco Public Schools is weighing whether to ask voters in November to approve a $135 million tax increase. A community advisory group has recommended the funding be used for teacher salaries, career and technical education programs, technology, and safety and building upgrades. If voters approve the measure, property taxes would increase by $3.58 per month on every $100,000 of a home’s value, according to a district presentation. Although Jeffco is Colorado’s second-largest school district with 74,000 students, it spends less money per pupil than several other metro districts, according to state data. Part of the reason is that Jeffco voters have approved fewer tax increases, known as mill levy o...
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When “Protecting Seniors” Meets Fiscal Reality: A Self-Inflicted Crisis
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

When “Protecting Seniors” Meets Fiscal Reality: A Self-Inflicted Crisis

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Any legislator who has opened their inbox lately has seen the urgent appeals: AARP warning that Colorado’s Senior Homestead Property Tax Exemption is under threat. The message is emotionally compelling—and fundamentally correct. Eliminating or weakening the exemption would amount to a tax increase on seniors, many of whom live on fixed incomes after decades of contributing to their communities. But what those emails don’t say is just as important as what they do. Because the current threat to the exemption did not emerge in a vacuum. It is the predictable result of a broader shift in Colorado’s fiscal philosophy—one that AARP itself has helped advance. A Record of Priorities—And Who Gets Left Behind If the curr...
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Lawsuit Fallout Could Cost Turnberry Residents Millions In New Taxes
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Lawsuit Fallout Could Cost Turnberry Residents Millions In New Taxes

By Sage Kelley | The Denver Gazette Homeowners of a small neighborhood in Commerce City remain confused and irate about the future of their property taxes in the aftermath of a lawsuit between the metropolitan district where they live and a bank. The conflict stems from a 2023 lawsuit in which UMB Bank in its capacity as trustee, alleged the BNC2 Metropolitan District No. 2 was improperly diverting property tax revenue for “administration and operations,” rather than paying back the bonds on which the property taxes were assessed. BNC2, a metro district of about 330 homes, oversees one-third of the Turnberry development. Other lawsuits between three metro districts alleged the administrator overseeing BNC2 at the time — and many other metro districts — took cont...
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You can’t afford your government: The cost of Colorado’s “affordability” agenda
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

You can’t afford your government: The cost of Colorado’s “affordability” agenda

By Dave Kerber | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Here we go again. Another crisis has materialized demanding our immediate attention and action. In the 2024 elections, Democrats took to lamenting the unaffordability of stuff in America to sweep to victory. Absent in those campaigns were any suggestions as to exactly how to make things “affordable” nor was there any mention that it was the Democrats with their massive post-COVID, Inflation Reduction Act spending that crammed money into the economy causing the rapid increase in inflation and economic unhappiness. Trump initially responded that affordability was a hoax, that the price of gas was down, and that little girls only needed two dolls not thirty-four. After being mocked by those who caused the crisis, he ...
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