by Charlotte Burrous
During the Fremont County Republicans Central Committee October 26, 2023 meeting, Fremont County Republicans explained why they are adamantly opposed to Proposition HH.
In the meeting, Fremont County Commissioner Dwayne McFall reported the Board of County Commissioners had approved a resolution opposing the proposition in a special meeting on September 21st.
“Last week, we passed a resolution opposing HH and encouraged all of Fremont County to also oppose HH, to vote no on it,” he said. “This is happening in several Republican counties around the state. We’re trying to encourage people to get out and vote ‘no’ on it and educate. If you read the headline, it looks like it’s all roses and candy, but it’s not. It’s the death (of TABOR).”
After he spoke, County Assessor Stacey Seifert reported on her findings of the proposition.
“I’ve been through it numerous times,” she said. “As you all know as your assessor, this thing affects me a lot in my job. It also affects me a lot as a taxpayer in this county. It also affects me a lot because I like to protect my county. I’d like everybody to have a pretty good idea of all the nuances in this proposal and there are a lot of nuances in it.”
The whole proposal is full of spirals with one thing depending on another, Seifert explained.
“This effectively guts TABOR,” she said. “It effectively gets rid of the last bit of Gallagher that was the 5.5 percent revenue. That’s gone. If this passes, it’s gone. What they have now as a revenue limit doesn’t seem terribly unreasonable. It’s a lot of the same language that was in TABOR. It’s inflation plus 1 percent plus population growth.”
However, she noted she did the figures, which comes out to 6.2 percent, using values from June 2023. So that is not a major difference from the 5.5 percent. However, in the next paragraph, the proposition in years going forward from 2024, when the state calculates the revenue limit, the beginning point is not zero then inflation plus 1 then population growth.
“The beginning point is last year’s cap,” Seifert said. “So now, this is going to grow exponentially over the next 10 years.”
Seifert stated the state would adjust the values to where taxpayers could save $147 if they have a $350,000 house and if HH passes, the taxpayers would save another $147.
“But you’re going to give up all your TABOR tax refunds,” she said. “They’re setting up a special account for the HH Cap exempt account for the state within the state budget. They’re going to set up a HH reimbursement or backfill fund for all the local entities. You know we’re going to take money away from you in the form of value, but the state is going to backfill that with the HH money that they’re keeping. Once any individual identity’s assessed value grows 20 percent, they are ineligible to get a backfill. It’s not 20 percent from one year to the next. It’s 20 percent for the 2022 value to whatever year going forward. In my estimation in two cycles from now, nobody’s going to get a backfill.”
The state also allowed all the entities if they choose to exceed their revenue cap, all they have to do is hold a public hearing, she said. At the public hearing, everyone would be able to voice their opinion in a facility that’s big enough to hold the crowd. Once everyone has voiced their opinion, the entity can do whatever it wants to by resolution and no one can appeal it in court.
“That’s the last sentence,” Seifert said. “This is not subject to appeal in court. These are the things we don’t hear about in HH. This was professionally written. I’ve never seen anything like this and we all know if this passes, the very next day, there’s going to be a lawsuit filed. In reality, I have to implement it. The day after it passes if it passes, I have to implement this.”
She said this proposition would not be good for taxpayers.
“This is horrible,” Seifert said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how bad it is. I’ll be out there pounding the drum, (saying), ‘don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.’”
At that point, Treasurer Susan Luck made a motion that the Fremont County Republicans oppose the proposition HH, as well, which unanimously passed. The group also approved spending money for yard signs opposing the proposition.
The group also discussed opting out from the open primary, which will be voted on September 30th in a state meeting. In the meantime, the state GOP has filed a lawsuit against the open primary, but this could take a long time to be settled.
The next meeting will be a Chili Cookoff, a pie auction and meet the candidates Tuesday, October 24th at 603 Main St.,Cañon City.