The good news about property valuation assessments

I want to publicly thank the Boulder County Assessor, Cynthia Braddock, as well as the Boulder County Commissioners for participating in a town hall meeting on May 18. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the recent property valuation assessments that were mailed to Boulder County property owners. Due to the high sales prices of residential property during the last two years, our property tax assessments have increased more than 30%. When asked about the process used for the assessments, Assessor Braddock indicated that it was strictly formulaic and regulated by state law. (Interestingly, when pressed on why the assessments of airplane hangars was changed from a cost basis to a comparable sales basis, which increased valuations by seven times or more, we were told that the employee performing the assessments decided to employ a different model.) Assessor Braddock encouraged all Boulder County property owners to appeal their assessment no later than June 8.

The good news is that Commissioner Stolzmann eagerly assured the audience that the Boulder County portion of property taxes will be limited to an increase of no more than 5.5%. Unfortunately the portion of our property tax that goes to school districts, cities and special districts may not have the same limitation. I should hope that these entities will exercise budget discipline and limit their tax increases as the county has committed to do. We should go to their public meetings and insist that they do.

There is great enthusiasm for affordable housing initiatives in our local government agencies, and I submit that property taxes are an important factor in the equation. Our elected officials can achieve an immediate gain in affordability objectives without disruptive increases in density, re-zoning and low cost building. Simply limit our total property tax increases to a reasonable 5.5%.