Greetings!
Thank you for attending the August 14th Forum on the Senior Property Tax Exemption and for showing your interest in learning more about the future of funding for the needs of Colorado Seniors. As you noticed in the presentation by the state economist, and from the two legislators who spoke to us, our state’s dramatically changing demographic requires fresh, new thinking to create a different vision for the future of Seniors in Colorado
Yesterday’s solutions will not fix tomorrow’s problems.
Your input and active participation help to shape that vision; fulfilling the vision requires action. By participating in the Senior Property Tax Exemption Forum on August 14th, you took action and made a difference - one that our governor and legislature have taken notice of and will continue to do so.
We, the host organizations: Colorado Gerontological Society, Colorado Senior Lobby and Strategic Action Planning Group on Aging continue to compile, analyze, and draw conclusions from all the excellent comments and questions we received. We will be getting answers to the written questions out to you in the next couple of weeks, along with further details from your feedback.
We are also preparing fact sheets for each state program related to property taxes and will post those on the CSL website when they are available (and we’ll let you know).
In the meantime, please see the following summary of key takeaways pulled from the surveys so many of you completed (thank you) and from the roundtable discussions.
- The majority of you say leave the Homestead Exemption alone; at the same time, portability and means testing and renter assistance appeared often in the discussion groups. Of those who thought a cap on property value would be fair, most said $350,000 and above.
- You told us that state budget spending for Seniors should be increased (we are working on getting better numbers of what that spending is now, relative to the overall state budget).
- You want to know more information about other ways (other than Homestead) to save on property taxes. There are qualifying seniors who likely know little to nothing about any of the following programs; suggestion was made to spend some state money to get the word out.
- Property Tax Work Off Program
- Property Tax Deferral Program
- Property Tax Rent Heat Credit
- Seniors have very limited earning capacity, yet property values/taxes are increasing, as are other taxes, and health care costs continue to outpace inflation. (Medicare premium increases outplace annual Social Security increases.)
- You said you would be interested in future events on: Affordable housing for Seniors, Drug Costs, Employment Opportunities for Older Adults, Advocacy training, Retirement/financial and advance directive planning.
