Colorado’s lawmakers on Monday wrapped up their work for the special session, sending several measures to Gov. Jared Polis, including the Democrats’ solution to soaring property tax bills.

Polis signed four of the seven measures on Monday evening.

All told, lawmakers passed seven bills in four days, working through the weekend in a marathon session that followed Polis and his allies’ stinging defeat when voters rejected Proposition HH, which would have used Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds for property tax relief. The ballot measure lost by more than 18 percentage points and won in only six out of the state’s 64 counties.

A pro-Palestinian protest also disrupted the session and a Democratic lawmaker, who was already called out of order earlier, joined the demonstrators who called for a “ceasefire” in

the House gallery, prompting her colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, to stand behind the Colorado General Assembly’s lone Republican Jewish lawmaker.

The session’s main legislation, Senate Bill 23B-001, offers homeowners relief by reducing the assessment rate from 6.765% to 6.7% and by increasing the amount that would be exempted from tax liability purposes to from $15,000 to $55,000.

And while the governor, who issued a “call” to lawmakers on Nov. 9, two days Proposition HH went down, asked lawmakers to come up with bipartisan solutions, there was none to be had in the four days. Every Republican-sponsored bill died in the early hours of the session’s first day.

In a statement after the session concluded, House and Senate Republicans said the bill would not provide “honest” property tax relief and called the main measure a remake of Proposition HH.

“Saving Coloradans money and reducing their tax burdens should have been the No. 1 priority for this special session,” said Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Republican from Brighton. “Instead, it looks like the Democrats and Governor Polis used this as an opportunity to score some political points. Our bill was a real and honest solution that would have given the people of Colorado the tax relief they need.”

House Speaker Julie McCluskie of Dillon countered that Coloradans “all across the state are going to save money on their property taxes next year, while schools continue to receive the increased funding they desperately need.”

“This responsible package,” she added, “delivers for the Coloradans who are feeling the brunt of our affordability crisis and returns more money to the people who need it the most by boosting the incomes of hardworking families and making Colorado more affordable.”

The two parties’ divergent ideas were palpable from the start.

On the issue of property tax relief, Republicans pushed for tapping the state’s $2.3 billion statutory reserve, while Democrats insisted on using a $200 million tranche of money left over from 2022 legislation.

The latter idea, which prevailed, meant the property tax relief offered would be limited to only homeowners of residential and multi-family properties, such as condos and townhomes, and nothing for agricultural and commercial businesses, including apartment building owners.

The Democrats’ proposal also did not change the senior-veteran property tax exemption law, although seniors and veterans are eligible for the relief that will be provided under the legislation’s residential and multi-family provisions.

Senate Bill 23B-001 — authored by three of the four Democrats who sponsored the measure that became Proposition HH — uses the $200 million primarily to cover revenue “losses” by public school and special districts, such as fire, ambulance or EMS services, as well as hospital districts that are primarily in rural Colorado. That is, the state will give these local governments money as compensation for tax revenue they would no longer collect under the legislation because of the changes in value exemption and assessment rates.

The reimbursement for “lost” revenue to county governments is based on size, with a larger portion going to counties of less than 300,000 population.

The property tax relief applies to the 2023 tax year only.

The special session call also included issues tied to Proposition HH, notably paying people an “equalized” TABOR refund.

Under Senate Bill 23B-003, individual tax filers, regardless of income, will receive $847, while joint filers will receive $1,694. The TABOR refund for the 2023 tax year will be paid with the 2024 tax filing.

Republicans called the approach wealth redistribution and warned it could drive away wealthy Coloradans and the jobs they produce. Democrats insisted that wealthy taxpayers did not need the refunds and that more of those dollars should go to low-income residents.

A bill to help low-income Coloradans through expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit also is on its way to the governor: House Bill 23B-1002 doubles the credit from 25% to 50% of an individual or family’s income. That credit varies, depending on the number of children in a family.

The credit is paid for with TABOR surplus dollars. The state will invest another $30 million in rental assistance through House Bill 23B-1001. The Department of Local Affairs will administer the funds, which can cover current and back rent, two months of future rent, and fees tied to evictions or other late rental costs.

The governor’s special session call also asked lawmakers to come up with a task force that would look for long-term solutions to Coloradans’ property tax woes.

House Bill 23B-1003 started off as an 11-member group, with six current lawmakers. Lawmakers initially rewrote the bill to increase the group’s size to 18, with 14 of the 18 appointments to be made by the governor, the Senate president and the House speaker.

Republicans, who have been working on the task force issue for nearly a year, cried foul and said the group’s makeup virtually ensured a lack of rural representation.

In the Senate, Rep. Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton, worked with his Republican colleagues to come up with a more balanced group, and the legislation ultimately ended up with a 19-member task force and different appointment structure. Senate Democrats pointed out that as many as 11 of the 19 members could be Republicans, including county assessors, county commissioners and business representatives.

That change, however, was not enough to get Republicans to vote for the measure. The Republicans cited concerns over inclusion of a teacher’s union member and some of the issues the task force will address.

The property tax commission, as it’s now referred to in the bill, is due to report recommendations by March 15, 2024.

Lawmakers also approved a bill to expand a treasury department loan program for property taxes, which has seen 1,000 more applications in the past year.

A bill to allow the state to participate in a federal summer food and nutrition program for kids became the only bill in the special session to receive bipartisan support in both chambers.

Senate Bill 23B-002 allows the state to access $42 million for summer lunch programs. It won near-unanimous support in the Senate and one Republican vote — from Rep. Rick Taggart of Grand Junction — in the House.

In about 50 days, lawmakers will return to the Capitol for the regular session.