Colorado Votes Down Proposition 120

The local government in Colorado has been busy, and one of the measures on the ballot this year was Proposition 120. This proposal would have lowered the property assessment in the state and reduced the upcoming year’s property taxes. Government officials were surprised when the measure was voted down on Election Day this year. Early results indicated the vote was 43 percent in favor of the property tax reduction and 57 percent against the proposal. What did Prop 120 mean, and why was it voted down by residents?

Proposition 120 Would Have Lowered the Property Assessment Rate

Initially, the property tax measure was designed to reduce the tax assessment rates to 6.5 percent in the state and commercial tax rates to 26.4 percent. Currently, Colorado’s property taxes sit at 7.15 percent for residential homes and 29 percent for commercial real estate. While the bill was initially applied to all properties in the area, changes in the bill eventually meant that a lot of single-family homeowners were not going to receive any benefit from the property tax reduction.

State Officials Undermined the Property Tax Legislation

Government officials clearly believed the measure was going to pass, so they went to work undermining the bill. They changed the bill’s impact by creating separate categories. When government officials were done with the bill, the change would only have applied to multi-family buildings and hotels, however, the bill would not necessarily have applied to everyone in the state.

Why Was Proposition 120 Voted Down?

It is surprising that the bill was voted down because, on the surface, it would have reduced the property assessment ratio and saved a lot of taxpayers’ money. There are a few possible reasons why the bill was voted against this year.