How often do you get a chance to cut property taxes — while thumbing your nose at the lawmakers who tried to stop you? If that appeals to you, vote YES on Proposition 120 on Colorado's statewide ballot this fall. The proposal certainly has won our support.

Prop 120 didn't make it onto the ballot before taking a beating from the very politicians who are supposed to respect and uphold your constitutional right to vote on taxes. The result of their dirty work is a proposal that cuts a lot less than its supporters originally had intended. But it's still worth Coloradans' support. Before recounting the legislative treachery that undercut 120, let's first recap what the proposal still will do and why it warrants a YES vote.

As explained in the state's "Blue Book" voter guide that probably has arrived in the mail by now, Proposition 120 will lower property tax assessment rates for apartments and other multifamily housing. It will lower rates on "lodging properties" — hotels, motels, B&Bs — as well. Also, the measure will let the state retain $25 million a year in revenue through 2027, over and above constitutional spending limits, if the funding is used by counties to offset local "homestead" property-tax exemptions for seniors and veterans with a service-related disability.

The proposal as drafted and proposed to the public last spring would have cut assessment rates for single-family homes and other kinds of real property, too. That would have saved hard-pressed Colorado homeowners and other property owners over $1 billion a year. It would have been a big hedge against soaring real estate prices. Prop 120 no longer will do that.

Yet, the roughly $200 million in property taxes it still will cut over a two-year period will benefit a lot of Coloradans. Most notably, those who live in apartments — who essentially pay property taxes through their monthly rent. The same goes for anyone who ever stays in a hotel room in the state. Hoteliers pass on property taxes to guests, factoring them into room rates.

Meanwhile, there's another benefit of voting YES on 120 — one that goes beyond dollars and cents. It's the sheer satisfaction of telling the legislature and governor you are not amused by their legislative sleight of hand.

Back in June, as the COVID-delayed 2021 legislature was in its final days, lawmakers pulled a stunt that was beneath even their usual, low standard for integrity. It was a slap in the face to all Colorado taxpayers.

Ruling Democrats apparently were terrified of Prop 120 back when it first appeared as a citizens initiative, in the midst of gathering enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. So, lawmakers did their best to sabotage it before voters could have a say. In the eleventh hour of a legislative session cluttered with contentious issues and complicated by the pandemic, lawmakers somehow found the time to rewrite Colorado's property tax code.

They snuck in a bill that replaced the state's two property tax classifications — commercial and residential — with multiple new categories. It lumped most of the state's taxable property into those new categories. That pulled the rug out from under the proposed property tax cut because its new tax rates were pegged in good faith to the old categories. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, and Sen. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, effectively made much of Colorado's commercial and residential property disappear from the old tax rolls. So, any subsequent tax cut drafted to apply to the old categories — would have precious little to cut.

What was left for Prop 120 to cut were the types of property mentioned above. It was too late for proponents to change their ballot proposal to conform to the new categories. The conniving lawmakers didn't pounce until after the proposal's official title had been set and certified by the state. Its proponents were out in the field, earnestly circulating petitions. Through no fault of 120's proponents, what remains on the ballot is the watered-down proposal we see today.

Can lawmakers actually do that? There are rumblings of mounting a constitutional challenge in court, but for now, the legislature appears to have gotten away with it. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law with a wink. It's a done deal.

This shameless subterfuge by our state's elected lawmaking body, with the complicity of the governor, undermines rank-and-file Coloradans' constitutional right to petition government for change. It erodes public confidence in the democratic process that those same officeholders claim to hold sacred.

The very least voters can do is cut the taxes lawmakers weren't able to get to. It's one way of telling them to go pound sand. Vote YES on Prop 120.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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