How to protest your tax valuation in Larimer County

 

Let me know if this helps!

By the way…. Democrat or Republican. Conservative or Liberal.

The huge increase in property tax assessments that we all received this year are related to the shenanigans that happened the last day of the legislative session.

In summary, the government thinks they know how to spend your money better than you do. Article below explains more of the details of how this happened.

Proposition HH will be on the November the ballot offering a one time $40 rebate of your property taxes in exchange for eliminating TABOR. (TABOR - Tax Payor Bill Of Rights)

This is an excellent article that explains the details: Thank you Tim Knaus

P.S. I could use your help. If you know anyone buying or selling, will you tell them about me? and.…. Call me to tell me about them. Thanks! Tara

Loveland Reporter-Herald

Timothy Knaus

Don’t be fooled by the Democratic state Legislature’s disingenuous Proposition HH. It is being touted as your opportunity to reduce your staggering new property tax bill. It is, in fact, a blatant grab for your TABOR refund. This proposition and its companion bill, HB1311, upon approval of HH will allow you to reduce your assessed valuation by $40,000, a pittance after a 40 percent increase. It will also sign over 1 percent of your TABOR refund for the next 10 years. Additionally, it will allow a “one time change,” for the second consecutive year by the way, to redistribute your refund more “equitably” according to its cosponsor. This means that everyone receives the same amount regardless of what they paid. They call this progressive. If they levied taxes this way it would be called regressive. These two measures were introduced in the final 36 hours of the session with no public input. The 60-page bill wasn’t even provided to the entire Legislature or the public until halfway through the day on Saturday, May 6, with final passage accomplished on Sunday.

For those of you new to the state, a short timeline: The Gallagher Amendment was passed by the voters in 1982 limiting residential property taxes to 45 percent of the total collected. This was in response to many years of escalating property taxes due to hot housing markets. It was repealed by voters, with the support of the Democratic Legislature, in 2020. This directly led to your increase now.

TABOR (Taxpayers Bill Of Rights) was passed by voters in 1992. It limits state spending to the rate of growth plus the rate of inflation. This means that the state will receive a windfall in the next several years due to the rate of inflation alone versus historical in addition to rising growth. All tax revenue in excess of this must be returned to the taxpayers. It also requires tax increases to be put before the voters. If the local entities relying on property tax revenues maintain their current mill levies, they will also receive said windfall. Perhaps this is why these entities can afford to line developers’ pockets with your taxes yet again.

Democrats, including your current governor, have done everything in their power to circumvent or eliminate TABOR since its inception. It’s their opinion that they certainly know better what to do with your money than you possibly could. For example:

In 2010, Gov. Bill Ritter (D) signed Title 42, a bill that redefined many taxes as enterprise fees so that they would no longer need a vote of the people. Look at your car registration. No less than 14 fees that used to be just one, thus subverting TABOR by semantics.

Proposition CC was referred to the ballot by the Democratic state Legislature in 2019. It would effectively eliminate TABOR. It lost by over 100,000 votes.

Proposition 117 in 2020, bringing enterprise fees (these are the ones on your car registration among others) which generated $100 million in their first five years or $20 million per year under TABOR, requiring a vote of the people. It was approved by the voters by over 150,000 votes. The Democratic Legislature then began creating multiple, smaller enterprise fees to circumvent the will of the voters and the intent of the proposition.

Gov. Polis went from opposing TABOR as too constraining to supporting it last year when he discovered that he could manipulate both the payout to be regressive, i.e. same amount for everyone, and time its delivery to a few weeks before the general election in an obvious vote buy.

Here’s the hook. The state Legislature, typically but not necessarily, in odd numbered years (this year for instance), has complete purview to establish the residential property tax rate, currently 6.756 percent. They could have set a rate that would not increase your property tax 40-plus percent, but decided on this ruse instead. They are requesting that you be the executioner that kills TABOR. Don’t be as stupid as they believe you are. Don’t be bamboozled.

Timothy Knaus is a Loveland resident.