After years of insufficient tax revenues, combined with a continued increase in demand for services, Arapahoe County referred a measure to the 2024 General Election Ballot that will ask voters to release the County from revenue and spending limits imposed by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Read the Pro/Con summary of the ballot measure referred to voters.

Over the past several months of outreach and engagement, thousands of residents have identified a general preference for not creating a new sales or property tax for the County. A majority of residents do want to see increased investments in:

• Better road quality and traffic improvements
• Sensible housing solutions
• Reliable and efficient public safety services

Based on community engagement, public sentiment seems to support a property tax measure that would allow the County to retain property tax revenue above its TABOR limits. In 2024, $74 million was left uncollected due to these limits. That funding could be invested in the areas listed above.

Arapahoe County has worked hard to communicate with residents about our budget shortfall, the need to sustain essential services, and the options to address this problem. Here are some of the highlights:

• Communications have been viewed more than 6.7 million times by county residents
• Two community surveys with over 4,800 resident responses
• Over 52,000 unique website visitors
• Over 76,000 website page views
• 1,570 contributions to the engagement opportunities on the website
• Text communication to 62,000 residents
• Educational outreach at over 85 events for various audiences, including county residents, mayors, associations, nonprofit partners, city councils, and more

Despite an overall increase in property taxes, the portion that Arapahoe County collects has steadily fallen even as demand for services has increased. More details can be found in the Resource Center on this website, but here is the bottom line:

• Arapahoe County only receives about $32 per month for a home valued at $500,000 to fund all your County services.
• One-time federal dollars used to cover previous budget shortfalls have dried-up.
• A third-party financial analysis supports the need for additional investment to sustain essential services, especially in comparison to other counties.
• The County takes fiscal responsibility very seriously and has programs in place to monitor, assess and improve the efficiency of services.
• Calculate your property tax impact