COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – The Cimarron Hills Fire Department said today it may have to cut staff if it is included in the property tax cuts negotiated this week.

Gov. Jared Polis has called a special session for Monday to discuss a property tax cut that could save Coloradans over a billion dollars, but he says he doesn’t want to do it at the expense of the school system.

“I’m confident, I always support property tax relief. There’s an opportunity here to give every homeowner in the state some property tax relief while reducing risk for the future. I have several different types of ballot initiatives. It seems like every year we have a different ballot initiative. They can jeopardize school funding and planning,” said Governor Polis.

The Cimarron Hills Fire Department said it also wants to be exempt from these tax cuts and maintain its funding.

“These impacts are devastating enough, but we believe we can sustain them going forward. We’re just not asking for any more cuts. We won’t have to cut the cuts that were made in Senate Bill 233, but it doesn’t look like we’ll have the ability to hire additional staff either,” said Cimarron Hills Fire Chief Andrew York.

The fire chief said that one in three incoming calls are simultaneous emergency calls and that they want to ensure that they have enough staff to respond to people at risk.

“The impact on the public will be very real. What we’ve told legislators will feel – I know this sounds harsh – negative, but the bottom line is that homes could burn down and lives could be lost,” said Fire Chief York.

The special session between Advance Colorado, Colorado Concern and the state’s legislators is expected to negotiate a tax cut without enacting Initiatives 50 and 108. If passed, these measures would cap property tax revenues each year and reduce assessment rates based on property value.

There was allegedly an agreement between the groups that

• Reduction of the effective property tax rate to 6.3 or 6.4 percent, depending on valuation growth;
• Reduction of the commercial property tax rate to 25 percent;
• Impose a property tax cap of 5.25 percent for local governments and 6 percent or the rate of inflation (whichever is greater) for school districts.
• Provide clear and unbiased ballot language in the required vote to repeal the local cap.

The meeting will take place this week until Wednesday.

Click here for more information about the session.

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