{"id":1312319,"date":"2019-07-11T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/basalt-council-favors-property-tax-refund-mill-levy-ballot-question\/"},"modified":"2019-07-11T12:20:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:20:00","slug":"basalt-council-favors-property-tax-refund-mill-levy-ballot-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/basalt-council-favors-property-tax-refund-mill-levy-ballot-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Basalt council favors property tax refund, mill levy ballot question"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Basalt Town Council directed its staff Tuesday night to work on issuing checks to current property tax owners to refund them for overcharges.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Current property tax payers in Basalt will get a refund for overcharges made by the town government.<\/p>\n

The Basalt Town Council voted 5-1 Tuesday night to direct their staff to work on issuing the refunds as well as prepare a question for the November ballot asking voters to endorse a proposed property tax mill levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue with a very transparent approach \u2014 sort of the sausage-making of a resolution of this (issue),\u201d Town Manager Ryan Mahoney said.<\/p>\n

The town provided information earlier this year that estimated residential refunds<\/a> will be $99 per $100,000 of actual value. So a house valued at $1 million would be eligible for a refund of $990.<\/p>\n

Commercial property owners would get a refund estimated at $399 per $100,000 of actual value. A commercial property valued at $1 million would be eligible for a refund of about $3,990.<\/p>\n

Only current taxpayers would be eligible, according to town officials.<\/p>\n

The town staff discovered while working on the 2019 budget last fall that the town\u2019s mill levy had been increased 10 times out of 13 years since 2006. New staff members suspected that was a violation of the Colorado Taxpayers\u2019 Bill of Rights, an amendment to the state Constitution that was approved in 1992.<\/p>\n

The town consulted with government associations, attorneys and its new auditor to confirm its suspicions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those folks were in agreement that we have an issue and it violated TABOR,\u201d Mahoney said. The mill levy couldn\u2019t be raised without a vote of citizens, he said.<\/p>\n

That created two issues for the town. First was how to handle the overcharges. TABOR has a four-year statute of limitations. Even though there were 10 overcharges, the government is only liable for the latest four years. In Basalt\u2019s case that means it is liable for about $2 million in overcharges.<\/p>\n

The second issue was the property tax mill levy. The town either has to go back to the lowest mill levy it has charged since TABOR went into effect or it must ask voters to set a new ceiling for the mill levy.<\/p>\n

Mayor Jacque Whitsitt opened the council discussion by lobbying to endorse the staff recommendation of giving a refund and going to election for a mill levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs some people have said, that really isn\u2019t our money anyway. It belongs to the citizens and I would love to see us refund it,\u201d Whitsitt said.<\/p>\n

In earlier debates, Councilman Auden Schendler suggested the town could keep the money and see if there was a legal challenge. The council also has debated asking a second ballot question to keep the refund.<\/p>\n

Council members Katie Schwoerer, Ryan Slack, Gary Tennenbaum and Jennifer Riffle voted with Whitsitt to support issuing a refund and asking just the mill levy question on the ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s ludicrous and crazy to do nothing and keep the money,\u201d Riffle said. We live in a litigious society and there were definitely be a challenge, she said.<\/p>\n

Tennenbaum said the staff recommendation was the best option in a tough situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is this is going to hurt the town\u2019s financial position no matter what,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tennenbaum said he strongly considered asking voters two questions \u2014 one on whether the refunds should be given and a second on setting the mill levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to do both questions is a huge political lift for the community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge political lift to get both of them passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therefore, he said it is best if the town admits it made a mistake with the overcharges, issues refunds and makes the case that voters must set a mill levy that lets the town maintain the services its citizens expect.<\/p>\n

Councilman Bill Infante dissented. He said he didn\u2019t see a problem asking voters if the refund should be issued or the money kept by the town. The funds were spent in the best interests of the community, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funds were not spent frivolously,\u201d Infante said.<\/p>\n

If voters agree, it would eliminate a big liability for the town, he said.<\/p>\n

Infante also challenged the assertion by Whitsitt that giving the refund would create goodwill and increase the chances of the mill levy question passing in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not see that having two questions threatens one or the other,\u201d Infante said.<\/p>\n

Whitsitt responded: \u201cFor me, there is such a thing as right and wrong here, too, and not necessarily what you can get done on a ballot question but what\u2019s just the plain-old right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schendler is traveling out of town and couldn\u2019t attend the meeting.<\/p>\n

Mahoney said Wednesday the staff will likely advise the council to seek November approval of a mill levy rate of 5.957, the same level as for the 2019 budget.<\/p>\n

Refund checks could be issued prior to the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to issue checks this fall, certainly this fiscal year,\u201d Mahoney said.<\/p>\n

The council majority gave direction for the staff to pursue its recommendation for the town to issue certificates of participation, also known as COP, to pay off the refund rather than using reserves and other town assets. COP is a form of financing where investors purchase a share of lease revenues of a program. It isn\u2019t considered a new tax. It would spread out the town government\u2019s burden of having to cough up $2 million in unbudgeted refunds.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basalt Town Council directed its staff Tuesday night to work on issuing checks to current property tax owners to refund them for overcharges.Aspen Times file Current property tax payers in Basalt will get a refund for overcharges made by the town government. The Basalt Town Council voted 5-1 Tuesday night to direct their staff to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 12:30:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}