El Paso County officials are being deluged with phone calls and e-mails from older residents who are angry that their senior  property tax exemption has been temporarily rescinded.

“We’ve gotten hundreds of calls,” Stephen M. Schleiker Jr., El Paso County deputy assessor, said this week.

The phone calls began in earnest after County Assessor Mark Lowderman sent letters Dec. 1 informing residents who qualified for the exemption that the program has been suspended. That means qualifying residents will not see the reduction in 2009 property tax bills that will be mailed in 2010.  

The program exempts  seniors from 50 percent taxation of the first $200,000 of value of their home. For example, the qualifying owner of an El Paso County home valued at $200,000 who pays roughly $1,000 in property taxes would see that bill fall to about  $500 with the senior exemption.

In El Paso County, 19,119 seniors have qualified for the exemption, which translates to nearly $10 million in tax revenue, said Schleiker.

The exemption, approved as a constitutional amendment by voters, went into effect in 2001 and is available to residents age 65  and older, as well as their spouses, who have lived in their primary residence for 10 consecutive years on Jan. 1 of the year they apply for the program.

The exemption has been periodically suspended by both Republicans and Democrats. It was available to qualified seniors in 2001 and 2002, suspended from 2003 to 2005, and available again from 2006 through 2008. “They give it. They take it. They give it. They take it away,” said Schleiker. “It makes it hard on seniors.”

Denny Seilheimer, a Colorado Springs businessman, figured the amount of his exemption would be about $800 to $900.  

 “The people have spoken and once again the politicians are making an end-run around them,” he said. “Politicians are not much better than street druggies. The more money you give them, the more money they need.”

With tax revenues declining dramatically because of the recession, the  Legislature decided during the last session to suspend the program for one year to shore up the budget. The vote split along party lines, with most  Democrats voting for the measure and most Republicans opposed.

“This was a very difficult vote to make, but given the financial crisis we are in, a necessary one,”  Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, who voted for the measure, wrote in an e-mail.

 The suspension will free up approximately $100 million statewide for other programs, Merrifield said. “We have tried diligently to make cuts fair, across the board, and strategic.”

The El Paso County Assessor’s Office, which is custodian of the exemption, would like to see it put back in place. “Seniors often live from payday to payday. And we feel this really hurts them,” said Schleiker.

 “El Paso County is a bit unique,” he added.  “Not only do we have a high number of retirees, but our county also has retirees that qualify for both the senior homestead and veteran exemption programs,” Schleiker added.

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Call the writer at 476-4825.

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