{"id":30767,"date":"2023-11-08T03:07:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T10:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-voters-firmly-reject-prop-hh\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:25:29","slug":"southwest-colorado-voters-firmly-reject-prop-hh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-voters-firmly-reject-prop-hh\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Colorado voters firmly reject Prop. HH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Luke
Luke Huttl, a Fort Lewis College student, drops off a ballot Tuesday at the voter service center at FLC. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado voters, including those in Montezuma and La Plata counties, firmly rejected Proposition HH, the convoluted property tax relief bill<\/a> backed by General Assembly Democrats and Gov. Jared Polis.<\/p>\n

With 43% of active voters\u2019 ballots counted in La Plata County, 55% of voters came out against the measure.<\/p>\n

In Montezuma County, 43% of active voters participated in the election, of which 62% rejected the question.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press called the race less than an hour after polls closed. With a voter turnout of 37% statewide, the \u201cno\u201d votes emerged victorious with a 20% lead. Of the 1.4 million votes cast, 60% rejected the measure.<\/p>\n

Backers of the measure pitched the question as a mechanism to lower property taxes and counter surging home values, although critics were quick to point out that the bill\u2019s actual impacts were more complicated \u2013 and unclear, as a result.<\/p>\n

The measure would have lowered the residential property tax assessment rate, used to calculate taxable value of a property, to 6.7% and held it there until 2032. But it would also have increased the state\u2019s revenue cap, first implemented by the Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights, by 1% annually.<\/p>\n

The additional revenue, which estimates say might have exceeded $2.2 billion by 2032, would have been used to backfill some local taxing entities to compensate for the decreased assessment rate.<\/p>\n

The leftover money would have been used to fund education across the state to the tune of $125 million next year and $269 million in 2025.<\/p>\n

Although the bill was pushed by Polis and Democrats in the Legislature, it did not have the support<\/a> of fellow party members in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Assessor Carrie Woodson, a Democrat, voiced concerns about the impact of the added workload on her staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cProposition HH was not given enough time for the affected groups to discuss and amend the bill prior to it going to a vote,\u201d she said in an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cProposition HH was very complicated and had too many factors that depended on something else. It was as confusing to the state\u2019s assessors as it was to the general public. Public policy should not be so complicated only a few highly educated experts understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three county commissioners, also Democrats, expressed concern over the expected $567,000 decrease in tax revenue.<\/p>\n

In an interview after Prop. HH\u2019s defeat, Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton said she commended the effort to fund education and provide property tax relief, and added that the rejection was a sign that lawmakers need to \u201croll up the sleeves and get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certain elements of the measure, such as making the senior homestead exemption transferable when a qualifying property owner moves, were widely supported even by the bill\u2019s detractors.<\/p>\n

Porter-Norton said collaboration with municipalities, counties and citizens was needed to come up with a proposal that is \u201cmore palatable to the voters and less complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials at the Durango Fire Protection District said the measure would bring about a concerning decrease in needed funding and called it \u201cvery damaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the taxpayers saw that it was a very confusing, multifaceted proposition,\u201d said Deputy Chief Randy Black. \u201c\u2026 The real work really begins now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Republican Central Committee ran a messaging campaign strongly opposing the measure, warning voters it would \u201cend\u201d TABOR refunds.<\/p>\n

In a brief emailed statement Tuesday night, the party chairwoman Shelli Shaw told the Herald,<\/em> \u201cWe are thankful that our efforts to educate the voters appears to be paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education was one of the few local taxing entities to support the measure, and board member Katie Stewart said the loss was not unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to dissuade us from continuing to advocate for public education at a statewide level to make sure, at some point, it\u2019ll be fully funded,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018roll up the sleeves and get to work,\u2019 county commissioner says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28,308,1264,12,1509,1160],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-local-elections","tag-property-tax","tag-state-budget-and-tax","tag-state-elections","tag-taxation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81199,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30767\/revisions\/81199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30767"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}