Report on 2026 Property Tax Balancing Percentage

House Bill 24B-1001 created a property tax limit for school districts beginning with the 2025 property tax year. The bill’s provisions limit statewide qualified local share property tax revenue, or local share total program revenue excluding certain sources or uses, by adjusting the residential assessment rate applied to school district mill levies temporarily downward if needed. 

Section 29-1-1702.5 (4)(c) C.R.S. requires Legislative Council Staff (LCS) to provide the Colorado State Board of Equalization the information necessary to calculate the balancing and correction percentages at the beginning of each property tax year. The balancing percentage is a temporarily lower residential assessment rate for school district mills that will lower assessed valuation to a level where projected qualified local share property tax revenue for an upcoming property tax year does not exceed the limit. Additionally, LCS is required to provide the information necessary to calculate a correction percentage for the prior year once actual data for a property tax year are available. A correction percentage, like the balancing percentage, is applied to temporarily reduce the residential assessment rate for an upcoming property tax year if qualified local share property tax revenue exceeded the limit in the prior year.