Assist for Proposition HH began to unravel from the second the invoice putting the Colorado property tax aid plan on the November 2023 poll was unveiled by Gov. Jared Polis’ at a information convention in his workplace on the state Capitol.
The governor was flanked on the Might 1 occasion by high-profile supporters of the measure — liberals and conservatives. Polis pointed to their presence as proof that the proposal was a well-crafted method to an issue that had dogged state lawmakers since voters repealed the Gallagher Modification in 2020, eradicating guardrails from the state’s property tax system.
“I definitely stay up for working with the enterprise neighborhood and lots of different supporters to ensure that voters are conscious of the significance of delivering on these property tax cuts,” Polis mentioned, including that he was “assured” the initiative can be permitted by Coloradans.
However the actuality was lots of the individuals standing subsequent to the governor at that information convention both had doubts in regards to the complicated coverage, which additionally would have boosted funding for faculties and lower into the sum of money for state taxpayer refunds, or didn’t absolutely perceive the way it labored, in keeping with The Colorado Solar’s reporting. That weak basis was mirrored in how voters rejected Proposition HH, a 10-year property tax aid and state spending overhaul, by an 18 percentage-point margin final week in one among Polis’ greatest coverage failures since he turned governor in 2019.
The legislature will collect on the Capitol beginning Friday for a particular session to attempt to shortly provide Coloradans property tax aid for the 2023 tax yr earlier than reconvening in January to take one other stab at a long-term resolution. The negotiations can be coloured by Proposition HH’s political collapse.
“We had a legislative product that was workable and mirrored the mandatory compromises on the Capitol,” mentioned state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who helped write the invoice that put Proposition HH earlier than voters, “however it didn’t translate properly to the poll.”
“HH didn’t symbolize our most popular coverage”
Colorado Concern, a nonprofit representing enterprise CEOs within the state, was one the teams that labored carefully with the governor’s workplace to draft Proposition HH. The group’s CEO, Mike Kopp, was on the Polis’ information convention the place the measure was rolled out. He was name-checked by the governor.
However even Colorado Concern’s assist for the initiative was lukewarm.
“HH didn’t symbolize our most popular coverage,” Kopp mentioned this week, “however it was the one factor that was going to be provided to voters that would supply any form of tax aid.”
The deep-pocketed nonprofit publicly endorsed the measure, however its assist successfully stopped there. The group didn’t financially again the marketing campaign to move the initiative due to coverage and political disagreement with how the proposition affected Taxpayer’s Invoice of Rights refunds.
“The historical past of TABOR elections within the state reveals that voters usually want to maintain TABOR intact,” mentioned Kopp, a Republican who’s a former state senator. “Whether or not anyone actually loves the coverage or not, it’s separate from the query of: ‘Is it one thing that the voters would undertake?’”
J.J. Ament, the president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, was additionally at Polis’ information convention in Might. He too was cited by the governor for instance of the Republican assist for the invoice. However Ament mentioned he wasn’t pleased with the top consequence — and the chamber ended up taking a impartial stance on the initiative.
“We had been on the press convention to assist a legislative resolution to a property tax emergency with the concept that we might additionally backfill native authorities,” he informed The Solar over the summer season. “What the legislature gave us, after we truly obtained the invoice, did an entire bunch greater than that.”
There have been different indicators that the present of assist on the information convention was, at finest, fragile.

An actual property agent spoke in assist of the proposal, however the Colorado Affiliation of Realtors opposed Proposition HH and spent gobs of cash to combat its passage due to the way it provided much less of a break on individuals’s second properties.
Even the Bell Coverage Middle, a liberal fiscal coverage nonprofit, wavered in its assist of HH due to the messaging surrounding it. Scott Wasserman, who leads the group and stood subsequent to Polis on the Might information convention, known as it a “political Goldilocks,” with one thing for individuals from completely different political factors of view to hate.
Democrats within the legislature, in the meantime, privately grumbled that the proposal, primarily drafted by the governor’s workplace, was dropped on the Basic Meeting too late within the session and with out sufficient enter. They had been requested to belief that the governor’s workplace had gotten it proper, however when some dug into the laws, they didn’t love what they noticed, significantly the shortage of assist for renters, which led to on-the-fly adjustments that solely compounded the political fissures across the measure.
Lastly, Republicans and native governments complained that they had been overlooked of the negotiations totally, or not listened to once they had been let within the room. The Home GOP caucus walked out of the Capitol on the ultimate day of the 2023 legislative session in protest.
Kevin Bommer, who leads the Colorado Municipal League, which represents the state’s cities, mentioned he didn’t see the invoice putting Proposition HH on the poll till after the governor’s information convention unveiling the coverage.
“We opposed it instantly, together with the opposite native authorities associations,” Bommer informed The Solar this week.
How Proposition HH got here to be
In an announcement to The Solar on Tuesday, Conor Cahill, a spokesman for the governor, mentioned “Colorado is in want of a long-term technique to preserve property taxes low, and Proposition HH was an concept in that vein.”
However even Polis, reflecting final week after Proposition HH’s failure, mentioned the measure was flawed.
The governor, talking Thursday at a information convention the place he introduced the particular legislative session, mentioned the initiative was too “lengthy and complicated” and that it ought to have been damaged up into completely different items. That was thought-about, however finally rejected, when the coverage was drafted, The Solar has discovered.
Polis mentioned he thought the way in which the initiative would have lowered state taxpayer refunds by elevating the Taxpayer’s Invoice of Rights cap on authorities progress and spending was essentially the most unpopular a part of the proposal.
“There have been insurance policies in HH I supported and insurance policies I didn’t assist,” he mentioned. “Total, I believed it was a great package deal.”

Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat and one of many prime sponsors of the invoice that positioned HH on the poll, mentioned this week that the measure was borne out of fears that conservatives would put a further-reaching initiative with no reimbursement cash for faculties and native governments earlier than voters.
“We had been type of between a rock and a tough place,” he mentioned. “It was, like: ‘Will we put another on the market or can we simply see what occurs?’ You possibly can in all probability debate what was the suitable name, however we determined: ‘Let’s put one thing on the market for voters to have instead.’”
By mid-summer, it was clear the conservative poll measure was by no means going to materialize for the November 2023 election. Democrats, properly conscious of the shaky assist for Proposition HH, determined to maneuver ahead with the initiative anyway.
The measure ended up faring worse than any query elevating tax income on the statewide poll since 2018.