How 2024 mill levies for Eagle County’s taxing districts will impact your new property tax bill

After months of questions, the mill levies have been set for all the county’s towns, schools and myriad special districts. The end result is larger property tax bills for county taxpayers.

County governments don’t set budgets and mill levies for school districts, metro districts and other entities that collect property tax revenue. Those districts set their own budgets and tax rates. But counties do certify those mill levies to the state. Counties then generate property tax bills based on mill levies determined by those taxing districts.

That information came later than usual this budget season, due to November’s special session of the Colorado legislature. That session provided local governments with a few options regarding 2023’s sharp increase in property valuations.

Anna Earl, the county’s finance director, on Tuesday provided the Eagle County Board of Commissioners with the final figures for the county’s 72 taxing districts.

Earl told the commissioners that mill levies for taxes due in 2024 are “pretty flat.” Some districts used authority granted by the legislature to issue temporary mill levy credits to taxpayers. Of the county’s taxing districts, 29 submitted a small reduction in their mill levies. There were also some reductions in total revenue.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Overall, though, the county’s gross property tax revenue will be $301.6 million. That’s an increase of almost 27% — $63 million — from taxes due in 2023.

Broken down by district, the county’s school districts will see a revenue increase of roughly 29.5%. That’s a $28.1 million increase in revenues.

Colorado Mountain College is showing a small increase — 3.68%, which adds up to just more than $545,000.

Earl’s information lumped all seven of the county’s towns together. In aggregate, the towns’ revenues will increase by $3.9 million, or 32%.

Eagle County’s property tax collections in 2024 will grow by $12.5 million, an increase of nearly 40.6%. But, Earl noted, the county government’s share of the total property tax bill is roughly 14%.

While the levies are set for this year, there will likely be more changes going into 2025. There will be another valuation of property in 2025 — those happen every two years in Colorado. But there’s also the likelihood of further changes to the state’s taxing system.

State lawmakers during the special session created a commission to look into further changes to the system.

“It’s been a topsy-turvy year,” Commissioner Matt Scherr said, noting that the legislative commission “has been given three months to figure out how to do property taxes in Colorado… there’s still more work to be done.”