COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Colorado lawmakers passed two bills the final day of the session Wednesday giving tax relief for Coloradans, an issue that House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese said was a high priority this year.
"Especially right now with the high costs of inflation everything is costing more; gas, groceries, housing," she said. "Having more money in the pockets of the people is really important. It's what I've heard from my constituents here in Colorado Springs."
Senate Bill 233 lowers the assessment rate on both commercial and residential real estate. It also allows homeowners to deduct $55,000 from their home's valuation before taxes are calculated.
Senate Bill 228 lowers the individual income tax rate from 4.63 percent to 4.5 percent. It also creates a mechanism that automatically lowers the state income tax in future years when state revenue exceeds the TABOR growth limit.
"It's not as much as I would have loved to have seen but very good bipartisan work, it's something that Republicans have talked about for years and haven't been able to do," Rep. Pugliese said.
The first bill to be signed by Governor Polis after the close of the session was sponsored by State Representative Stephanie Vigil. House Bill 1304 prevents city and governments from requiring minimum numbers of parking spaces be built for new multifamily housing.
At a bill signing ceremony in Colorado Springs Friday, Vigil explain how parking minimums frequently lead to a surplus of off-street parking spaces at the expense of additional housing units. This negatively impacts the housing supply and hampers efforts to bring down prices.
"There's a reason why so many of these laws are being challenged and rolled back all over the country," Vigil said.
She also led the charge to increase the minimum requirements to become elected as county coroner.
"Our own coroner, Dr. Leon Kelly has been sounding the alarm about this for years," Vigil said.
House Bill 1100 requires candidates running for coroner in a large metropolitan area to either be a forensic pathologist or certified medico-legal death investigator.
"I think it really secures that basic government service to ensure that it's done to a high standard of professionalism because we depend on those coroner's findings for so many things," Vigil said.
Both women said there was a greater atmosphere of cooperation under the dome this session. Vigil praised Pugliese for her leadership style.
"When I've had concerns you know there was a big bill this session that I was worried about how it was going to be discussed as well, and maybe how things were going to go and I said can we at least talk about how I would like things to go and she was really receptive to that and very respectful to me and to folks in my community," Vigil said.
"Obviously, as a Republican I'd like to see more balance. I think we're definitely out of balance right now," Pugliese said. "However, I think having conversations in a bipartisan way, that's what the people want."
EDITORS NOTE: The broadcast version of this story incorrectly stated that Senate Bill 228 created a flat TABOR refund. The income tax cuts contained in the bill are triggered by the flat TABOR threshold. We regret the error.
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