It’s political blackmail, pure and simple.
There is no real need for the coming special session of the state legislature, but Michael Fields and his team at Advance Colorado have successfully blackmailed the governor, who may not mind so much, and Democrats in the state legislature, many of whom definitely do mind, to agree to a special session to once again reduce property taxes.
Advance Colorado, the advocacy group that claims to oppose “radical” — meaning liberal — Colorado policies, and Colorado Concern, a conservative nonprofit that represents state business interests, are sponsoring two property tax ballot measures that are generally described as either “reckless” or “devastating” or — maybe this is just me — something very close to extortion.
And if the state legislature passes a new property tax bill — as it almost certainly will — Fields has promised to withdraw the initiatives, which are sufficiently radical and would be sufficiently dangerous that everyone, — by which I mean virtually everyone, suddenly felt the absolute need to give in to Fields.
The betting has been that neither measure would pass. The early polling seemed to suggest that neither would pass. But suddenly, in just the past few days, those who seemed ready to gamble got a collective case of cold feet. By cold, I mean ice-age cold. Pre-global-warming cold.
The stakes apparently were just too high. And the final bet by Jared Polis and those in the state legislature was that Fields et al were not bluffing.
State budget director Mark Ferrandino said if the two proposals passed — Initiative 50, which would place a strict cap on property tax growth, and Initiative 108, which would cut property tax revenue by an estimated $2.4 billion — they would cause a recession-equivalent budget crisis.
And so with just weeks to go before the two proposals would be certified for the November ballot, a wide-ranging group of Coloradans, from labor groups like the Colorado Teachers Association to school districts and university officials to conservative groups like Club 20, came together to call for a special session to ward off a “very significant and real threat to all communities in Colorado.”
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These are groups that rarely agree on anything, but they did agree there was more than a little justifiable panic in the air.
The mayors of Colorado’s three largest cities — one mayor a Democrat, one a Republican and one Unaffiliated — also wrote a letter citing the desperate need for a special session.
”If passed, these two initiative will drastically defund K-12 schools statewide, deplete public safety resources and demand crippling cuts to local fire districts and special districts,” wrote Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D), Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman (R) and Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade (U). “These are very real impacts that will negatively impact every resident’s quality of life. We are depending on our legislature to ensure this does not happen.”
We could also expect cuts in transportation funding, in higher education and in Medicaid.
Yeah, dangerous. And radical.
As Polis put it, “whatever the level of risk is — whether it’s a 50-50 chance it passes or a 30% chance it passes” — the risk is too high.
And so Polis has decreed that the legislature will meet, starting Aug. 26, to hammer out what has apparently already been agreed to. It takes at least three days to get a bill passed and ready for the governor to sign, and the hope — although maybe not the reality — is that’s what will happen. If past is prologue, and it often is, sometimes these special sessions can go off the rails.
It’s an election year, meaning anything is possible. And it’s not just Republicans who might have an interest in making the session more interesting than Polis would like. Several progressive Democrats who lost in primary races to candidates backed by the party establishment would be back on the floor and might have something to say.
Which doesn’t mean that Polis is entirely unhappy. You may recall that just last May, at the end of the regular legislative session, they passed a bill, one that Polis signed, that reduced property taxes by somewhat more than $1 billion. You may also recall that Polis, who hasn’t seen a state tax rate he doesn’t want to lower, wanted a bigger cut.
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And of course, in a special session called last year, the legislature passed emergency aid for homeowners and renters. And there’s the bill passed in the 2023 session. I think you can spot a trend.
There was the thought — or at least the hope — that the bill in the last regular session had sufficiently addressed, at least for a while, what has been a crisis in property tax hikes, fueled by the runaway rise in housing prices. Although Colorado property tax rates are relatively low compared to most states, that didn’t prevent untenable growth in costs for many homeowners.
A new proposal would cut property taxes by $255 million in addition to the cuts already passed. And if the legislature sends a similar proposal to Polis to sign, Fields said that not only would he pull both measures from the ballot, but that the bill could provide a “permanent solution to Colorado’s property tax crisis.”
When The Sun asked Polis, as reported in The Unaffiliated newsletter, about the outside groups using the ballot to force the legislature’s hand, he said, “This is another example of an issue where, of course, it’s the right of people who petition and go to the people to decide things, but if the legislature can work it out, and we can avoid that and provide more stability for the states, that’s a good thing.”
Which, I believe, is Polis-speak for, this has worked out just the way I wanted it to.
He also said in the interview that he didn’t think this meant the issue was solved “forever,” but that he hoped the issue might be resolved for maybe the next 10 years.
Which brings us back to the issue of blackmail.
You know how it is with blackmailers. If they get away with it once, they can be counted on to come back again. And again. And again.
They may say that they won’t. They may promise with a blood oath that they won’t. But, here’s the catch: Why should anyone believe a blackmailer?
Look, it might well be that Advance Colorado or Colorado Concern won’t bring up another initiative. But who’s to say that some other group won’t bring up something even more radical and more dangerous and find someone else with big money to back it?
The risk is there. But in this case, neither Polis nor the legislature had any real choice but to pay up.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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