HCR03-1005:
During the 2003 legislative session Senator Anderson and Representative Stengel introduced this House resolution that would have:

• Asked the voters of Colorado to stop the free fall of residential property assessment rates that have been occurring for the last 20 years. The resolution proposed setting a residential assessment rate floor to halt the decline of the residential assessment rate at 9.5%. While the resolution passed out of committee, it was never brought to a vote on the House floor and as a result it died.
  

Amendment 32:
In late spring 2003 a group known as the Citizens for Property Tax Reform decided to use HCR03-1005 as a template for a November 2003 ballot initiative. The initiative, ultimately known as Amendment 32 failed in the November 2003 election.  Had the Amendment passed, it would have:

• Set a floor of 8.0% on the residential assessment rate for personal property.
• Eliminated the 45%-55% split of the property tax burden between nonresidential and residential property.

Floating the mill levy:
With the passage of TABOR in 1992, the practice of allowing mill levies to float upward during poor economic times was constitutionally prohibited. While there has been no formal proposal to alter TABOR to allow mill levies to float upward, some have informally suggested this might be the best way to protect revenue for local governments.

State Treasurer Mike Coffman:                                                                         In the fall of 2003, State Treasurer Coffman unveiled a comprehensive plan for state budget reform.  Part of the plan specifically addressed the Gallagher Amendment, according to Coffman the proposal would:

• Maintain the intent of the Gallagher Amendment by permanently reducing and freezing in place the residential property tax assessment rate at 0.5% lower than the FY 2005 rate.  The package further protects residential property owners from runaway property tax increases caused by rising property values by capping the growth of residential property values to an annual increase of 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.  The difference between the statewide growth of residential property values and the proposed growth limit is used to provide a statewide property tax exemption for all residential property owners.  Once granted, the exemption can never be decreased and stays with the property.
• The package extends the current exemption on business personal property tax to the first $2500 of business personal property to all businesses in Colorado.  When nonresidential property tax vlaues rise statewide at a rate faster than inflation or 5%, whichever is less, the difference is distributed equally to all business personal property owners statewide as an increase in their business personal property tax exemption amount.  Once the exemption is granted, it can never be decreased - eventually eliminating business personal property taxes.