Property Tax Fiasco: News Miner 59
Also: Housing policy, indecent exposure, sleeping bags, crime, open records, education, and more.
Property Tax Fiasco
What in the hell is going on with property taxes in Colorado? The left-leaning Bell’s Scott Wasserman explains that part of the problem is that property valuations were taken at their peak. He continues:
From 1982 until 2020, the Gallagher amendment ensured that when residential property values went up, residential assessment rates would go down and non-residential rates would go up to absorb the blow. The problem with that arrangement was twofold: residential heavy communities were falling short on revenue, particularly for their schools, and non-residential property owners were stuck with extremely high assessment rates.
But then Colorado voters repealed the Gallagher amendment.
Now, the governor has a convoluted plan to “fix” the problem. Read Jesse Paul’s review, watch Ben Murrey’s critical video, or read Jon Caldara’s outcry.
9News points out that the proposed “fix” still would allow very high increases in property tax, only not quite as high as otherwise. But some of the difference would be taken out of TABOR refunds.
Again, my position is that government should stop taxing property altogether. Besides being an expensive nightmare to administer, the property tax system in effect turns all “private” property into state-owned property on which people have to pay perpetual rents, or get kicked out. I’d much rather eliminate property taxes and raise income taxes in a revenue-neutral way. The state already administers income taxes and easily could do so on behalf of regional governments.
Housing Policy Fiasco
More on bill 213: The bill as recently amended would modestly tamp down local restrictions on the building of residential housing. As CPR reports:
Another amendment waters down the bill’s abolishment of occupancy restrictions. Now, the bill would give cities with a college student population of at least 25 percent the ability to limit the number of unrelated adults that live together at five.
Such occupancy limits are flagrantly discriminatory in that related individuals may legally live together. See also Eric Budd’s details.
Andrew Kenney reports another detail:
One interesting part of the property tax proposal: It creates a new distinction between owner-occupied homes and those that aren't. Second homes and single-family rentals would face higher tax rates.
I don't believe this distinction exists in state law right now, so property owners would have to register whether their property is owner-occupied or not.
To be clear, multifamily buildings would also always get the lower rate. But single family homes that are being rented out or used as second home would get the higher rate. This is starting in tax year ‘25.
That is a very stupid policy. For those keeping track, apparently the legislative aim is to screw poor college students, all renters, and people who own rental properties.
Elsewhere, Ilya Somin discusses why HOAs do not violate people’s rights but restrictive zoning does.
Somin also discusses YIMBY efforts in Montana.
Indecent Exposure
There was some concern that increasing criminal penalties (see bill 1135) under the indecent exposure statutes where minors are involved might lead to police or prosecutorial abuse. But, having now read the existing statutes, I’m not much worried about this. Here is the language of 18-7-302:
A person commits indecent exposure:
(a) If he or she knowingly exposes his or her genitals to the view of any person under circumstances in which such conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm to the other person with the intent to arouse or to satisfy the sexual desire of any person;
(b) If he or she knowingly performs an act of masturbation in a manner which exposes the act to the view of any person under circumstances in which such conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm to the other person. . . .
(5) For purposes of this section, “masturbation” means the real or simulated touching, rubbing, or otherwise stimulating of a person’s own genitals or pubic area for the purpose of sexual gratification or arousal of the person, regardless of whether the genitals or pubic area is exposed or covered.
Quick Takes
Sleeping Bags: Colorado Sun has a great profile of Jerry Wigutow’s Grand Junction sleeping-bag company. I’ve met “Wiggy,” and I use Wiggy bags, but I didn’t realize Wiggy’s partner is Kok Bou, “who fled his home country of Cambodia in the 1970s as the Khmer Rouge murdered millions.”
Crime: A 16-year-old allegedly brutally murdered a 14-year-old, who was trying to sell a gun. “Police believe that [the boy’s] death may have been a gang retaliation,” the Gazette reports. Our country has a serious problem in that a prominent gang subculture glorifies violence, yet some are content to simplistically proclaim “it’s the guns.”
Crime: A Pueblo man made a “citizen’s arrest” of someone who alleged punched his wife. But, as Steve Staeger points out, video of the incident does not match the man’s initial description of how he and his son responded. I think it’s fair to say based on the video that the man “arrested” was viciously beaten by the son. “Police have now recommended third degree assault charges against” the man and his son, Staeger reports.
Criminal Justice: Chris Vanderveen has a good run-down of how law enforcement agents have tagged people as having “excited delirium” to rationalize or excuse rough treatment.
Criminal Justice II: The Sun reports: “The family of a 24-year-old Mesa County man with severe intellectual disabilities will receive $2 million from the county and the jail’s former health care provider to settle a lawsuit alleging he died after the jail’s staff neglected to make sure he took his life-saving seizure medication.”
Criminal Justice III: “A former Mesa County District Court judge was publicly censured Monday over drunken sexual advances he made toward an attorney during a Colorado Bar Association conference in what is the first use of the Colorado Supreme Court’s new system for disciplining judges,” the Post reports.
Drug War: “The severity of punishment does not impact drug use or sales,” Elise Schmelzer writes, so, naturally, “lawmakers are considering expanding the [fentanyl felony penalty] law to apply to overdose deaths from all drugs.”
Drug War II: The legislature killed a bill to allow authorized drug use sites.
Wage Controls: Edgewater is considering raising its minimum wage (not counting that the real minimum wage is zero).
Records: “A refusal by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) to release more than 1000 documents as part of an open records request has led Complete Colorado to retain legal counsel to secure the full breadth of the request,” reports Sherrie Peif.
Records II: “The Colorado Legislature is a pretty polarized place, but if there is one area where you can count on bipartisanship at the Capitol, it’s aversion to transparency,” writes Quentin Young.
Records III: “Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) board is a criminal justice agency, and it did not abuse its discretion by denying two news organizations’ requests for the state’s database of certified and decertified law enforcement officers, the Colorado Court of Appeals decided,” writes Jeffrey Roberts (April 27).
Child Care: It remains inaccessible to many Coloradans. I’d like to see a good investigation of how both regulations and government promises to enter the field discourage new child-care businesses.
Abortion: Republican (of course) Richard Holtorf blamed Democrats for driving “abortion tourism.” As I replied, “Yeah it’s so crazy how Colorado Democrats advocated abortion bans in other states to drive women seeking abortions to Colorado.”
Democracy: Former Senate President Peter Groff defended the two Black men expelled from the Tennessee legislature. Meanwhile, dozens of Colorado legislators defended the transgender legislator removed from the Montana House chamber.
Speech: I don’t think Colorado legislators can legislate themselves into the ability to block people from the social media accounts they use for governmental purposes. See also Jeffrey Roberts’s article.
Speech II: “Christian Cakebaker Jack Phillips Appeals ‘Transgender Cake’ Case to Colorado Supreme Court,” reports Focus on the Family.
Education: Kyle Clark summarizes (April 28): “The Denver Public Schools principal who revealed that the district was placing students accused of serious crimes, like attempted murder, back in class against the advice of law enforcement and school leaders, faces a ‘full-scale’ investigation by DPS, his attorney says.”
Education II: “group chat involving Castle Rock Middle School students evolved into bullying with racist slurs and threats that targeted Black and biracial students for months,” the Sun reports.
LGBTQ: Newsline reported the following about complaints in Douglas County about library books with LGBTQ content: “Others, such as Adam Hiller, went so far as to suggest burning them in a bonfire after saying he did not see his argument as an ‘anti-gay trans rant.’”
Fascism: Rep. Steven Woodrow writes, “Difficult to take anyone seriously who thinks commies were fascists. Fascism is rightwing. I get that that hurts some feeling—right wingers don’t want to admit to anything that causes them emotional discomfort. But facts matter. The projection must be named.” Okay, but . . . no one has claimed that Communists were fascists. However, I have accurately claimed that fascism is a type of socialism.
Republicans: House Republicans cheered the “right to repair” bill that many Republicans opposed. Brianna Titone was displeased. I explained why it was a bad bill.
Media: “Denver judge dismisses defamation lawsuit against 9News anchor Kyle Clark following Jan. 6 attack,” reported the Sun on March 29.
Taxes: Dan Mitchell unsurprisingly really likes the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Constitution: I haven’t watched this whole video featuring Rob Natelson, but it starts out provocatively: “If you read the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, you can see that, in the first few weeks, they were building the platform or the framework for a mega government.” But them “something happened.”
Scenery: Here’s a recent photo of mine of Matthew Winters park.