A judge this week dismissed the vast majority of Douglas County’s lawsuit against a state board that blocked the county’s creative attempt to offer $28 million in property tax breaks to homeowners.
Denver District Court Judge Martin Egelhoff ruled Wednesday that he lacked jurisdiction to consider the claim brought by Douglas County’s three commissioners, and that the commissioners didn’t present enough evidence anyways to prove their allegations.
Egelhoff didn’t dismiss the county’s claim that the State Board of Equalization’s decision should be subject to court review.
“The court dismissed three of the county’s four claims,” Douglas County Attorney Jeff Garcia said in a written statement. “The county is evaluating possible grounds for appeal on the three dismissed claims. However, regardless of any appeal, the county is proceeding to litigate its remaining claim. Because this is ongoing litigation, the county cannot comment further on this matter.”
Douglas County’s commissioners, acting as the county’s board of equalization, sued in January alleging the State Board of Equalization didn’t have the authority to block the tax break and that it didn’t follow Colorado’s open meetings laws when it did so in December.
The Douglas County Commission voted in September 2023 to reduce the county’s valuations by making an across-the-board reduction in single-family home, townhome and condominium values that had been determined in May of that year.
Property valuations, which are done every two years in Colorado, are one of the key factors in determining how much a homeowner pays in property taxes. A lower property valuation means a lower property tax bill.
The county’s board of equalization is supposed to correct errors in property valuations, not make property tax policy. But the county’s assessor said the reduction was justified because housing market conditions were fluctuating in June 2022, when the valuations were dated.
The assessor’s argument was complicated, however, by the commissioners saying they also acted in the name of tax relief after home values in Douglas County rose an average of 48% in 2022 for calculating tax bills in 2023 and 2024.
When the State Board of Equalization reviewed the value reduction in December, the panel said the reduction was unwarranted and expressed anxiety about how approving the change could set a precedent followed in other parts of the state. They also worried about how the decision could pose a drag on state finances by requiring that more money be routed to schools in Douglas County.
There are some 300 local districts in Douglas County whose revenues would have been affected by the change.
The State Board of Equalization has five members. After the board’s ruling on Douglas County’s valuation reduction, Gov. Jared Polis, who was upset at the decision, removed one of his appointees from the panel, fellow Democrat Bernie Buescher, former Colorado secretary of state.
Polis replaced Buescher with a Republican.
Buescher told The Sun he was “sure” his vote to block Douglas County’s property tax relief plan had something to do with the governor’s decision to remove him.