Property taxes and affordable housing were key issues discussed during a Thursday, July 18 listening session hosted by Summit County officials and state lawmakers. 

The event, part of the county’s ongoing “Coffee with the Commissioners” open forum series, saw the Summit Board of County Commissioners join with Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie and state Sen. Dylan Roberts to hear from community members about a range of topics. 

Property taxes

Kicking off the hour-long forum was a discussion on property taxes, a dominant issue in Summit County and across the state over the last year. Following the latest valuation cycle from county assessors last year, property values in Colorado skyrocketed, with residential property in Summit County increasing by an average 63% since 2021. 

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A Summit Daily News analysis found the increased values led to a 2024 increase in property tax bills that were anywhere from 37% to 45% on average for homes valued at $500,000, $1 million and $2 million. 

“I will be the first to say that I know as a single mom, the valuation increase this past cycle was painful,” said Commissioner Tamara Pogue. 

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While Colorado still has one of the lowest residential tax rates in the country, the surge in property tax bills this year led to sticker shock for many homeowners across the state, with local and state officials looking for ways to mitigate the financial hit to residents. 

At the same time, Pogue said local government entities that rely primarily on property taxes for revenue, such as counties, continue to crawl out of a revenue hole created during the Great Recession — the economic downturn that started in December 2007 — while also contending with inflationary pressures, including an increased cost for materials and staff salaries. 

“Really, we had just caught up to where we were pre-recession,” Pogue said. “When I started as commissioner (in 2020) we had a 50% vacancy rate because we couldn’t afford to pay our employees what it actually costs to live here.” 

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Further complicating matters is the breakdown of where property tax revenue goes. 

Roughly one-third of total property tax revenue in Summit goes to the county government, of which a majority goes to voter-approved fund accounts such as Strong Future, which finances early childhood care, behavioral health, fire mitigation, recycling and public infrastructure programs. Another third goes to the school district, while the remainder goes to special districts, such as water, sewer and fire protection districts. 

During 2024 budget discussions late last year, commissioners weighed decreasing county mill levies by an average 4.4% in a bid to provide some property tax relief. A mill is a $1 payment on every $1,000 of assessed value that is factored into property taxes. 

Pogue was the lone commissioner to support such a reduction, which ultimately did not pass as part of the 2024 budget. The county’s mill did still naturally decrease by 2.8% this year to account for certain funds that are set at a fixed dollar amount. 

At the state level, lawmakers held a special session in November following the failure of Proposition HH, a ballot measure that would have reduced the statewide assessment rate to blunt the increase in property taxes while using tax refunds to backfill local governments’ revenue losses. 

Legislators ended up passing many of the same measures included in HH during their special sessions, with the exception of using tax refunds for backfills. Additional legislative items also included expanded rental assistance and tax credits for low-income families. While that legislation was seen as a stopgap solution, lawmakers this spring passed wider-ranging and longer-term property tax reform measures that eases future tax increases whilst protecting revenue for school districts. 

“I want you to know that we are going to continue to evaluate the impacts of this bill we just passed,” McCluskie said, adding she is “strongly opposed” to property tax ballot proposals this November that, if passed, would devastate local and state government budgets. 

“I hear the pain and frustration that we haven’t been able to do more” on property taxes, McCluskie said. “But know that it has come from a great deal of work and, really, a focus on responsible government. ‘How can we reduce property taxation and maintain services?'”

Affordable housing 

Intertwined with the property tax discussion was affordable housing. Audience members pressed officials on what moves they are taking to lower housing costs, with some saying they haven’t seen enough progress. 

This year, the county government is poised to cap off two of its own housing projects, one being the 52-unit-for-rent Larkspur complex, a joint effort with Breckenridge that is currently in the midst of moving in its first tenants. The other is a 15-home, deed-restricted neighborhood outside Frisco dubbed Nellie’s Neighbrohood, which broke ground this spring and could see home sales begin in October. 

Hundreds of other units remain in the works at various phases. But with one-third of the county’s roughly 30,000 homes used as a short-term rental, and around two in three homes sitting vacant several months of the year, the county remains in deficit of affordable housing for long-term residents. 

The county’s most recent housing analysis calls for upwards of 2,500 new affordable units to be built within the next five years. 

“We talk about housing more than we talk about just about anything else,” said Commissioner Eric Mamula who, during his previous 8 years as mayor of Breckenridge, said the town created around 1,500 below-market units.

But with the county governments often needing to work with other jurisdictions, be it the U.S. Forest Service or town governments, progress on housing projects can at times be slowed. Mamula gave the example of Lake Hill, a planned affordable neighborhood alongside Dillon Dam Road that has been discussed for more than 20 years. 

The nearly 45-acre parcel, which could support as many as 825 affordable units, has been mired in years of studies and community debate about the project. Its ability to move forward hinged on cooperation from the Frisco Sanitation District and town government, the latter of which recently agreed to provide water to the project. 

Along with multi-jurisdictional partnerships, Mamula said it’s important that community members who are supportive of affordable housing initiatives make their voices known during governmental meetings. 

“Everybody agrees with housing until it’s next door to them,” Mamula said, adding that pushback to projects remains “one of the biggest problems for us as a commission.” 

Roberts, whose Senate district includes Summit County, said the state is becoming a better partner with local governments on housing. He mentioned an expansion of housing grants and innovative legislation, such as a 2023 law that allows and incentivizes public-private partnerships to develop affordable housing on unused, state-owned land — a bill he introduced. 

While state lawmakers passed a sweeping package of land-use reforms and housing incentive measures this legislative session, mountain communities like Summit were largely exempt from those bills, which instead target populous cities along the Front Range. High Country officials say other strategies, such as deed-restrictions and ways to preserve existing housing stock, are more suited for their areas. 

Commissioner Nina Waters added that Summit County sees a unique obstacle in needing to close the housing gap for middle-income earners, often referred to as the missing middle. But amid multiple challenges, Waters said the county is committed to moving the needle. 

“There is a process,” Waters said. “We have to be very, very precision focused on how we do this so that we don’t find ourselves 10, 15 years down the line in an even worse place.”