STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – — With three days remaining before the June 1 deadline, fewer than 100 of the 647 rural Routt County property owners who stand to lose their agricultural status for the one acre their homes sit on already have appealed to the Routt County Assessor’s Office.
“My office has not seen the backlash we were expecting,” Assessor Gary Peterson told the Routt County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. “We thought we’d see a lot more angry farmers and ranchers and nonfarmers and ranchers who were unhappy with this bill.”
Peterson was referring to House Bill 1146, which was passed by the Colorado Legislature in 2011 and became law Jan. 1. The new law represents an effort to rebalance the state’s overall tax burden and make it more fair to all taxpayers by removing the favored agricultural tax status for the one acre that a rural home sits on when its owners are not “integral” to the surrounding agricultural operation.
In cases where the occupants of the home consistently work the land, the new law would not apply.
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