Score one for Colorado taxpayers.

Homeowners struggling with property tax bills were the big winners at the State Capitol, as a new state law — passed in the recently concluded special legislative session — cuts and caps property taxes, providing a permanent fix to our state’s property tax crisis.

This was the result of an unrelenting two-year push from the grassroots to convince lawmakers that a simple, straightforward solution is what Coloradans need: a property tax cut and an enforceable cap so that the current massive increase cannot happen again.

The passage of this bill brings annual savings, including from the property measure enacted this year, to $1.6 billion — or approximately $500 per household. This victory shows that we can give taxpayers relief from double-digit tax increases while protecting local government services, including public schools.

Make no mistake: this is a sea change for how our state approaches your local taxes. Simply put, we had to flip the Colorado fiscal conversation.

For the past two years everyone at the Capitol, in both parties, knew the state was facing a serious property tax problem. Voters had repealed the Gallagher Amendment, which kept residential taxes lower than commercial property taxes. This decision, in turn, required rebalance of local taxes, at the expense of homeowners. In addition, home values have skyrocketed in most areas of the state, and, since property taxes are tied to assessed valuation, your more valuable home brought you a much higher tax bill.

It was math. And the equation was decidedly not in favor of taxpayers.

These fiscal facts could, and should, have been addressed proactively.

Instead, leaders in charge at the Capitol decided to avoid the obvious solution: if taxes need cutting, you cut taxes. That would have put the emphasis on the needs of millions of Colorado taxpayers. Instead, as is too often the case, they focused the conversation on the needs of government. Month after month, they resorted to dishonest rhetoric that putting a reasonable cap on local government growth would deeply damage a wide menu of local services.

Taxpayers weren’t buying it. They felt the reality in their pocketbooks.

The fact is local government has hardly been starved for revenue. According to Common Sense Institute, property tax revenue increased by $2.4 billion, or 19%, in 2024 — the largest annual increase since 1975. In the past five years, revenue has grown by 55%.

There is room for homeowners to get a tax break.

Nonetheless, liberal lawmakers would not change their focus and solve the property tax problem to benefit taxpayers. Instead, in 2023, we ended up with Proposition HH, a dishonest measure touted by the governor and legislative leaders claiming to save people money when, in fact, it took TABOR refunds from Coloradans so they could pay for their own tax relief.

Most of the public campaign for the measure focused on the needs of government, not taxpayers. And the complexity of the measure further demonstrated how out of touch its supporters really were.

Advance Colorado, along with Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer and Rep. Rose Pugliese, led the opposition to Proposition HH. It was defeated by almost 20 points.

Even after getting shellacked at the ballot box, and convening the Legislature in a do-virtually-nothing special session, “cut and cap” were words that would not be spoken by the politicians in charge.

Then the tax bills started arriving. Coloradans were seeing increases of 30% on average with homeowners in some counties seeing hikes significantly higher. This could not have come a more challenging time, as inflation raised prices of basic staples such as gas, food, and clothing,

We have heard stories, and received letters, from taxpayers who were not only shocked and angered by double-digit property tax increases, but were also deeply concerned about how they would afford to stay in their homes.

Politicians continually point to high housing costs as one of the state’s biggest problems, and yet often forget that, for most people, property taxes are a significant portion of each month’s mortgage payment.

Some pro-taxpayer leaders, such as the county commissioners in Douglas County, provided immediate relief, but the larger solution would either come from the state Capitol — and if not, then from citizens themselves.

Knowing that taxpayers could not wait for politicians any longer, we at Advance Colorado proposed a package of two initiatives that would cut property taxes and then put a reasonable cap in place to prevent future major increases. In fact, the property tax cap proposal earned its signatures faster than any other measure in state history because voters agree with the idea that government shouldn’t grow faster than taxpayers’ wages.

In the end, each measure garnered 200,000 signatures, well above the requirement. That’s 400,000 people placing their names on the ballot for a real, common-sense solution.

This was a taxpayer-generated thunderclap inside the Capitol dome.

The mere presence of these measures provided focus for lawmakers who otherwise would never contemplate cutting and capping property taxes. As a result, this year, the Legislature passed a bipartisan tax relief measure that was a solid start, but work remained to permanently solve the tax crisis for the benefit of Colorado homeowners.

Advance Colorado began the campaign to pass Initiatives 50 and 108.

The mere fact that we, along with our partners at Colorado Concern, said we were ready to go the voters caused panic among progressives. We were called every name they could think of, from extortionists to terrorists, for suggesting that local government should live with the same limits that Colorado families do.

They cooked up specious polls saying the measures were unpopular and, at the same time, commenced negotiations with us to find a legislative solution to preempt the initiatives. If they were so unpopular, and would come crashing down like their unpopular Proposition HH, why bother?

The fact is that our measures were very popular. But no campaign is a given, and this effort would have easily cost each side $8 million.

So we, along with Sen. Kirkmeyer and Rep. Pugliese, reached a deal with Democratic leaders and the governor. As a result, the law passed in the special session:

• Cuts the effective residential property tax rate to 6.3 or 6.4% depending on assessment growth;

• Cuts the commercial property tax rate to 25%;

• Implements a property tax cap of 5.25% for local governments and 6% or inflation growth (whichever is greater) for school districts.

• Ensures clear and nonbiased ballot language in the required vote of the people to opt out of the local cap.

Here’s why this solution works.

Taxpayers not only get a break, but the cap also puts a brake on future spikes to prevent a rerun of this crisis. At the same time, the cap allows local governments, including school districts, to have more than enough revenue growth year over year. So, just as Colorado families must manage their dollars efficiently, so must government.

There’s no free lunch, even for governments always hungry for more tax dollars.

That said, even this very significant tax relief still might not be enough in some areas of our state. The answer is to put the pressure on at the local level, letting elected officials know that they can cut property tax mills even further. If enough people speak out, show up at meetings, they will hear the message.

This is the power that citizens have in our system of government. The last two years have provided a reminder that citizens retain enormous influence, if they keep the pressure on and stick to principles, even when the heat gets turned up. In the case of excessive property taxes, the concern struck a chord across the political spectrum, and legislators felt the concern as they talked to constituents.

There was little appetite, outside the Capitol, for tepid half measures that worried more about government’s bottom line, than the bottom lines of the Coloradans who pay for government.

This successful citizen uprising to cut and cap property taxes shows that, in a time of deep division and even cynicism about government, at least on this important issue, the people still rule.

Michael Fields is president of Advance Colorado.