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Let's Just Vote: Amendment E could expand tax cuts to Gold Star spouses

Colorado's Constitution allows for property tax breaks for seniors and disabled veterans, and Amendment E would extend a property tax cut to Gold Star spouses.

COLORADO, USA — Colorado's Constitution allows for property tax breaks for seniors and disabled veterans.

The Homestead Exemption is a property tax cut.

Seniors older than 65 who have lived in their home for longer than 10 years and disabled veterans can get a discount.

Amendment E asks you to extend that benefit to a third group.

A YES vote on allows Gold Star spouses to also receive this discount.

A NO vote makes no changes to the homestead exemption.

A Gold Star spouse is the surviving spouse of a service member who either died in the line of duty or died from a duty-related injury or disease.

The state estimates that 490 Gold Star spouses would qualify if Amendment E passes.

The property tax break works like this: 50% is exempted of the first $200,000 value of the home. That does not mean a $100,000 property tax savings, because the property tax you owe is based on an equation using the value of your home.

Put another way, the Homestead Exemption knocks a maximum of $100,000 dollars off the home's value when determining how much property tax that homeowner owes.

Since your property tax depends on where you live and the value of your home, the savings would be different for any homeowner.

Based on the average property tax rate last year, the Homestead Exemption saves a few hundred dollars.

Last year, 266,000 seniors and 9,000 veterans received the property tax exemption. Combined, those 275,000 homeowners did not have to pay $162 million in property taxes.

Property taxes pay for cities, counties, school districts, parks and recreation, fire protection districts, water districts, libraires, etc.

To make sure those areas are not short because of the exemption, the state reimburses the difference to counties. The counties distribute the money to all the agencies that rely on property tax money.

If Amendment E passes, the state estimates it would have to reimburse another $288,000 for up to 490 gold star spouse exemptions.

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