Voters for the Telluride School District R-1 on Nov. 6 approved a mill levy increase by a margin of 64.4 percent to 35.1 percent, the Telluride Planet reported. The increase is expected to raise $1.2 million a year and go toward operations, recruiting and retaining teachers, and maintaining small class sizes.
The mill levy hinged on whether Amendment 73 would pass. The statewide measure would have raised $1.6 billion for K-12 education by raising income taxes for people who earn more than $150,000 a year, but it failed in the statewide election.
The Telluride Board of Education supported Amendment 73 and wrote into the ballot question that they would have dropped the mill levy increase if the amendment had passed.
Also, voters approved a 2 mill increase for the Telluride Fire Protection District, and agreed to freeze the residential property tax rate at its current 7.2 percent in order to offset decreases in funding for the fire district. According to fire Chief John Bennett, the new residential rate would amount to an increase of $72 per $500,000 of a home’s value.
The measure passed 70.4 percent to 29.6 percent, the Telluride Planet reported.
The term “de-Gallagherize” is being used for ballot measures that freeze the residential property tax rate as a way to stabilize budgets of rural governments.
Under the Gallagher Amendment, 45 percent of total state property tax revenue must come from residential property, and 55 percent from commercial property. Rural officials say the system unfairly penalizes the finances of rural special districts.
The amendment mandates that the assessment rate for commercial property be fixed at 29 percent, and the residential rate be annually adjusted to keep the 45/55 split constant.
Because of rising home values on the Front Range, the residential rate was dropped statewide to stay within Gallagher’s ratio requirements. In Montezuma County, the residential rate recently dropped from 7.9 percent to 7.2 percent and is expected to drop to 6 percent in 2019, further pinching local budgets.