ALAMOSA — The Alamosa County Board of County Commissioners had a full agenda to consider on Oct. 11, including property taxes, domestic violence awareness, a preliminary budget, an update from Advantage Treatment Center, and other issues.

Commissioner Lori Laske introduced a resolution on state property taxes that voters will decide on in the November election, "Regarding Prop HH, because it has a significant impact on the county we have taken the opportunity to make sure our voters are getting the correct information and understand what the impact HH will have on the county and to them individually with the reduction to their TABOR refunds. Because of this, the commissioners have opted to take a position of opposition to HH based on our resolution." [for a full text of the resolution see sidebar].

The resolution was approved unanimously. Laske added, "And one last comment, this [propisition] gives $21 billion to the state out of our citizens."

Megan Lang, with Tu Casa gave an update on Domestic Violence Awareness Month and presented the commissioners with a proclamation that read in part, "Domestic violence can have severe consequences for survivors including emotional harm, physical injuries, mental health concerns, and even death. Whereas domestic violence not only impacts survivors but also has effects on children, families, communities, and the nation as a whole...Domestic Violence Awareness Month provides an opportunity to educate the public, mobilize community members and engage in advocacy efforts to end domestic violence.”

Lang then gave the commissioners an overview of the work Tu Casa does in victim advocacy, prevention and education, domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, stalking, and human trafficking.

Commissioner Arlan Van Ry briefed commissioners on Operation Green Light, "a national, county, movement, Amazon also backs us on this. It is where we encourage county, residential, city, all public buildings to light them green the week leading up to Veterans Day. I would like the support of other commissioners for Operation Green Light so we can light our buildings up." Commissioner Vern Heersink offered his support and said, "Absolutely. Commissioner Van Ry, I appreciate you looking into this and appreciate your generosity in buying the lights and I wholly support this and think it is a great idea."

Commissioner Laske also supported the endeavor and said, "I one hundred percent support this, and thank you very much our Veterans are so important to us and any time we can take an opportunity to recognize them I appreciate it.”

Commissioner Van Ry said he would introduce a resolution at the next meeting regarding Operation Green Light.

Kale Mortensen, the executive director of the Alamosa Visitor and Convention Bureau, spoke about the Visit Alamosa initiative. During his presentation, he said hotel occupancy is down slightly and that hotel and tax revenue looks bright. Mortensen gave an overview of the video work the bureau is doing. Alamosa County Administrator Roni Wisdom gave the work rave reviews and suggested that some of the future work feature an older demographic. Recruiting international travelers is going well, said Mortensen.

Aaron Miltenberger, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the San Luis Valley updated commissioners on the club. The Valley Courier will have a feature article on Miltenberger and all the exciting developments at the club in our Saturday edition by Priscilla Waggoner.

Pamela Cisneros, youth program manager with the Southwest Conservation Corp gave a photo presentation regarding the work the outdoor youth crew did in the county last summer. The crew worked on a variety of projects with the City of Alamosa, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, and the Rio Grande Farm Park.

"They did super great this season. I was really impressed with their education in conservation, birding, and recreation. They even participated in meditation, they were a rowdy bunch and they were able to get it done. It was an all-around a great season," said Cisneros.

The conservation corps works on outdoor projects in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The organization was founded in 1998 and continues the of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s.

Last year the county financed a two-week work crew and the group requested the county bump that up to a four-week crew at $9,500 a week. Commissioner Heersink asked, "Is the focus of the program on building up the kids, or is it for getting work done in public spaces?"

Cisneros replied, "We've had this conservation for a long time, are we a youth-serving organization that does conservation, or are we a conservation organization that does youth and development work? I don't think we have ever come to a place because we do both."

Commissioner Laske offered that it would be great if the corp can work more on county facilities and said she is supportive and that the county is now working on its budget.

Josh Mayhugh, the acting facilities manager at the Advantage Treatment Center ATC in Alamosa told the commissioners, "With some of the audit results we had a few weeks our, director did leave employment with us. We thought it was important we have a member of the executive management here to take control of the program and be here to see sort of what is going on, see some of the training deficiencies we had and help guide the program back into where we want it to be, back where it has been historically." The center provides drug and alcohol addiction treatment.

The audit Mayhugh mentioned is one the Division of Criminal Justice is compiling (and yet to be competed) on the Alamosa Facility that has determined the facility is in non-compliance in several areas with state statutes.

In a meeting in late September with the 12th Judicial District Community Corrections Board that oversees ATC locally, Doug Carrigan, owner of ATC said, "It was a bad audit," and said it was likely the facility would be put on probation for one year."

County Controller MariCruz Mora presented a preliminary budget for 2024. If approved, the county will cover a deficit of $808,987 out of the general fund. Proposed budget revenues are $15,281,840 and proposed expenditures are $16,090,827.

RESOLUTION OF ALAMOSA COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

RE:  A RESOLUTION OPPOSSING PROPOSITION HH ON THE 2023 BALLOT WHICH PURPORTS TO REDUCE PROPERTY TAXES BY BACKFILLING LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVENUES WITH STATE SURPLUS FUNDS

WHEREAS, Alamosa County, is a political subdivision of the State of Colorado and is geographically located within the San Luis Valley; and

WHEREAS, C.R.S. §1-45-117, authorizes the Board of County Commissioners to adopt a resolution or taking a position of advocacy on any statewide ballot issue; and

WHEREAS, Senate Bill SB23-303 (“Proposition HH”) was passed by the Colorado Legislature in the final hours of the last day of the 2023 legislative session; and

WHEREAS, SB23-303 was signed by Colorado Governor Jared Polis on May 24, 2023; and

WHEREAS, SB 23-303 requires Proposition HH to be on the November 2023 statewide General Election ballot; and

WHEREAS, the passage of Proposition HH would trigger conditions within SB23-303, authorizing the State of Colorado to circumvent the provisions of Colorado Constitution Article X, Section 20, known as “The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” or “TABOR;” and

WHEREAS, all property tax revenues remain at the local level and go to pay for schools, roads, fire protection, libraries, police, and other local services; and

WHEREAS, the ballot question allows the state legislature to extend Proposition HH through 2040 producing a $21 billion net tax increase, as property taxes are reduced by $21.49 billion while state taxes increase by $42.38 billion, all without voter approval; and

WHEREAS, the average homeowner would see a property tax savings, they would lose money in future TABOR refunds; and

WHEREAS, based on the passage of SB22-238, Alamosa County homeowners will pay approximately $410,000 less in 2023 property taxes without reducing any TABOR refunds; and

WHEREAS, while the 768,000, or 33% of all Colorado households that are renters would not directly receive a property tax reduction, yet those who are joint filers would lose money in future TABOR refunds in addition to the increase in property taxes over time that landlords choose to pass on to the renter; and

WHEREAS, Proposition HH places a revenue limit on property tax revenues which may result in decreased services as property tax revenues may not keep up with increasing expenditures by local government and special districts, and

WHEREAS, Proposition HH increases the work load for County Assessors and County Treasurers and requires unnecessary public meetings, resolutions, and monitoring by County staff while at the same time reducing funding for such increased work load, and

WHEREAS, to obtain the “Primary Residence Real Property” or “Qualified-Senior Primary Residence Real Property” tax reductions set for tin SB23-303, the property owners would be required to disclose their Social Security Numbers (SSNs) to the Assessor, who would then be required to disclose those SSNs to the Colorado State Registrar; and

WHEREAS, such disclosure of SSNs risks unauthorized disclosures to the detriment of the property owners; and

WHEREAS, TABOR, if allowed to work properly without being circumvented by SB23-303 provides the tax relief desired by Colorado taxpayers, as authorized by the voters of Colorado in 1992; and

WHEREAS, the TABOR refund was never intended to be used for the purpose of backfilling the loss of revenue to local governments caused by the property tax reductions of SB23-303, which would be triggered by the passage of Proposition HH; and

WHEREAS, the backfilling would not benefit most local governments in Alamosa County because SB23-303 prohibits backfilling once the local government assessed property valuations are twenty percent greater than they were on January 1, 2022,

WHEREAS, Proposition HH does not restrict the General Assembly in future years from changing the use of the excess revenues to some purpose other than backfilling the loss of revenue to local governments caused by the property tax reductions of SB23-303; and

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of County Commissioners formally declares its opposition to Proposition HH for the reasons stated above; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board encourages the voters of Alamosa County to vote “No” on Proposition HH on the November 2023 ballot.

DONE THIS 11^th DAY OF OCTOBER, 2022 by roll call vote; ALL IN FAVOR