Bipartisan support for this constitutional amendment proves Coloradans care about their first responders, schools, rural communities, and small businesses.
Coloradans tonight have officially said “Yes” to Amendment B, voting to prevent cuts to critical services and to spare small businesses from a greater property tax burden by repealing the nearly 40-year-old Gallagher Amendment.
“When we launched this adventure our opponents were dismissive, saying there is no way; the Gallagher Amendment is too complex and that we would get killed at the ballot box. They were wrong and they underestimated Coloradans,” said Campaign Co-Chair Kent Thiry. “Coloradans care about fairness, they care about firefighters and small business, they care about each other and their state.”
Passage of Amendment B is the most significant fiscal reform of Colorado’s Constitution in at least a generation.
“Tonight, our teachers, critical-service providers and the Coloradans who rely upon them can rest easy knowing that Coloradans came together to support them and thwart the cuts that the outdated Gallagher Amendment promised to deliver,” said Campaign Co-Chair Joe Zimlich, CEO of Bohemian Group.
Fire departments, schools and frontline health providers across Colorado have faced years of substantial budget cuts as a result of Gallagher’s outdated property-tax formula. Under Amendment B, the statewide residential assessment rate is frozen at 7.15% and the commercial assessment rate is frozen at 29%. Those rates cannot be increased without a vote of the people.
“In a year where Coloradans have been forced to deal with record-setting wildfires, a global pandemic and unprecedented changes to the ways our kids learn in school, this election presented voters with a historic opportunity to be there for the firefighters, nurses and teachers who have been there for us all year long,” said Campaign Co-Chair Mike Johnston, a former Democratic State Senator and CEO of Gary Community Investments. “In true Colorado fashion, voters used their voice to not only say ‘thank you’, but to prove they won’t turn their back on the hometown heroes who now need us the most.”
Tonight’s result (support for Amendment B was at 57.6% – 42.4% as of 9:45 p.m.) is a stunning reversal from the last attempt to ask voters to address the Gallagher Amendment’s unintended consequences. In 2003, Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected (22% “yes” vs. 78% “no”) a measure that would have frozen the residential assessment rate at 8 percent.
Had Amendment B failed, Colorado’s small businesses and commercial properties faced the prospect of paying a tax rate five-times higher than the rate paid by homeowners.
Voting Yes on B is about removing Gallagher’s one-size-fits-none rules from our state constitution,” said Campaign Co-Chair and former Republican U.S. Senator Hank Brown. “It spares small businesses from an even greater property-tax imbalance, and freezes the property tax rate for homeowners. Importantly, those rates can only be increased with a vote of the people under TABOR.”
Amendment B, which was referred to the ballot with bipartisan “yes” votes from nearly 75% from the Legislature, drew support from throughout Colorado and across the political spectrum. Hundreds of civic leaders and community organizations and more than a dozen newspaper editorial boards endorsed the measure.