Greater Brighton Fire Revenue Limit Waiver

Greater Brighton Fire Protection District covers about 150 square miles of Adams and Weld counties from five stations, serving Brighton, Wattenberg and parts of Commerce City, Henderson and Lochbuie. Issue 7D lifts the state's 5.25% property tax limit on the district for all future property tax years. The question does not raise the mill levy; it removes the cap on how much revenue the existing levy brings in as property values rise. The ballot lists hiring more staff, training and retaining staff, firefighting and other life-saving equipment and apparatus, and other operating and capital needs. It states no dollar amount.

A 2024 special session of the legislature set the limit at 5.25%. The limit applies to qualified property tax revenue. Its base is the highest qualified revenue collected and lawfully retained in a property tax year from any earlier reassessment cycle. The limit adds 5.25% of that base multiplied by the number of years in the current reassessment cycle, plus any eligible carryover. If revenue would pass the limit, the statute directs the board to grant a temporary tax credit or cut the levy for that year; a district that does neither must refund the excess. The count leaves out revenue from value that new construction and annexed land added in the prior year, from producing oil and gas wells, and from mill increases that voters approve on or after November 5, 2024. The board asked for a waiver with no end year.

In November 2022, district voters approved Ballot Issue 7B, a 4.42-mill increase to hire firefighter paramedics, train crews, replace safety gear, keep staff and meet other operating and capital needs. The ballot put its first full year's revenue at $5,620,297. In the district's Adams County precincts, 55.6% voted yes. Because that vote came before November 5, 2024, the statute counts its revenue toward the limit. For tax year 2025, the state Division of Property Taxation lists the district's levy at 17.504 mills, with no temporary tax credit.

The comment filed in favor, printed in Adams County's election notice, says call volume, population, apparatus, insurance and construction costs are rising, and that the waiver lets the district collect what 2022 voters approved when values and demand grow faster than the state formula. No comments against were filed.