Democrats wasted precious time on a rent control effort that blew up this week and also gutted Gov. Polis’s signature housing bill, while failing to deliver the promised legislative fix to keep property taxes from exploding and sending homeowners to the poor house.
From the Denver Post:
Nine county assessors along the Front Range on Wednesday morning revealed the median increases in residential properties, which are valued on a two-year cycle in Colorado. The two-year increases are unprecedented, ranging from 33% in Denver County to 47% in Douglas County.
Adams County reported a median residential value gain of 38%, Araphaoe came in at 42%, Boulder was at 35%, Broomfield at 41%, Elbert at 35%, Jefferson at 36.5% and Larimer at 40%. And as robust as those gains were, increases were even higher in several resort areas of the state, in the 40% to 60% range.
This isn’t breaking news. This has been the obvious freight-train of higher taxes about to collide with taxpayers that @MichaelCLFields has been warning us about the fall of 2020. Bad policy has consequences, this one’s going to leave a mark. #copolitics #coleg https://t.co/ryhz75Nfu1
— Dustin Zvonek (@DustinZvonek) April 26, 2023
The rent control measure was evicted from the state Senate Local Government and Housing Committee in a 4-3 vote, with Eagle County Democrat Dylan Roberts crossing party lines to kill the bill.
Over in the Senate Appropriations Committee:
The winning amendment was a strike-below that rewrote the bill and took out its most controversial provision: language that sought to allow state control of local government zoning decisions. The bill in its new form would signal a major defeat for Polis, who made state preemption a key feature of his affordable housing plan for the 2023 session.
As amended, SB 213 is little more than a planning measure and still lacks any requirement that new housing be affordable. Its most important provision now appears to be a housing needs assessment that would look at housing needs on a statewide, rural and urban basis. The assessment has bipartisan support.
Meanwhile, the legislative session is scheduled to adjourn in just over a week without a fix in sight to keep property taxes from hitting record increases.
The state legislature has been in session for four months and struck down a Republican plan to cap expected tax spikes from 40% upwards of 60%, to just 5% over the next several years.
Democrats claimed to be waiting on a proposal from Polis to cap the increase, as he promised, when voters repealed the Gallagher amendment.
Colorado property owners are going to see unprecedented tax increases…
Thankfully, Dems haven’t just made living in the state unaffordable, crime, and homelessness is up as well.
Our beautiful state being destroyed by woke agendas. #coleg #copolitics https://t.co/xTSctIvVPS
— Colorado House Republicans (@COHouseGOP) April 26, 2023
Was there some grand scheme for Polis to wait until the last minute to propose a solution, then load it up with poison pills to force down the taxpayers’ throat in exchange for passing it at the last hour?
Either that, or every Colorado homeowner except the wealthy are about to find themselves living in unaffordable housing.
Either way, the Democrat-controlled legislature is a complete failure.