Denver frequently ranks among the most expensive housing markets in the United States, and a recent market analysis concluded that nine of the state’s largest cities witnessed median home prices double in less than a decade . While this has provided homeowners with greater equity, it has also made property taxes and housing affordability a pressing issue for Colorado voters and politicians alike. Despite the public’s desire for property tax relief, Colorado voters decisively rejected Proposition HH, which sought to cut property tax rates and curtail the fiscal constraints imposed by TABOR. Democrats in the General Assembly referred the measure to the ballot over considerable Republican opposition in May 2023. Republican lawmakers walked out of the House chamber in protest as lawmakers proceeded to a vote on final passage. This first legislative walkout in more than 20 years resulted in a House vote of 44-2 vote in favor with 19 absent Republicans marked “excused with protest.” Speaking in objection, the House Minority Leader highlighted the ideological and urban-rural divides in the state by claiming that the walkout’s intentions to send a message to Democratic lawmakers “who are mostly metro area Democrats, stacking pots that our state includes much more than the concrete and steel parts of Colorado” . After a successful party line vote in the Senate and an unsuccessful legal challenge that the measure violated the state’s one-subject rule, the measure was cleared for the ballot allowing voters to decide its fate.
Supporters of Proposition HH enjoyed a financial advantage as the primary committee backing the measure raised nearly $3 million, which exceeded the primary opposition committee by about $1 million . Despite a considerable fundraising advantage and strong endorsement from the Democratic Party and many prominent Democrats across the state, including Governor Jared Polis, voters defeated the measure with 59.3% of ballots voting opposed. The Denver Post described the result as a “shellacking” that delivered a “double blow to Gov. Jared Polis and fellow Democrats,” which resulted in Governor Polis calling a special legislative session to address the property tax issue since inaction would result in a property tax increase . Legislation enacted during the special session reduced the residential property tax rate to 6.7% from 6.765% while increasing each home value’s tax exemption from $15,000 to $55,000. The General Assembly also passed an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit to provide economic relief for renters, appropriated funds to local governments to help offset taxation losses from the increase in the tax exemption value, and standardized equal TABOR refunds next year across all income tax brackets. To research additional policy reforms, the legislature further created a 19-member property tax task force to study and provide the governor with “recommendations for a permanent and sustainable property tax structure for the state” . Although growing property tax burdens caused economic anxiety for many across the state, other aspects of the state economy provide causes for optimism.By most indicators Colorado’s economy remains robust and trending upward.
A recent economic forecast projected “continued moderate expansion” in 2024, albeit at a slower pace than the year prior. The state’s economic analysis further posits that eases in inflation will allow the state to outperform national economic trends with “comparable employment growth in 2024, higher income growth, and lower inflation” . Data from the first quarter of 2024 place inflation year-over-year in the Denver metro area at less than 3%, which is slightly better than the national figure of 3.2%. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates a gross state product growth rate of 2.3% . Median incomes in Denver and Colorado each surpass the national median income of $75,149. Per capita income in both areas likewise exceed the national figure. Economic indicators suggest that Coloradans are better off than their counterparts in other states, especially regarding labor force participation and income levels. In 2023, the rate of personal income growth in Colorado was estimated to be the same as the national percentage of 5.2. Estimates of civilian labor force participation in Colorado and Denver both exceed the United States overall . The state’s unemployment rate of 3.8% in June 2024 remained below the national figure of 4.1% . The state’s economic forecast notes that while employers continue to add jobs each month with some exceptions, the pace of job creation has slowed considerably over the past year. Monthly job creation averaged 4,800 in 2023, which represents a substantial decrease from the 6,900 jobs averaged in 2022 . Concerns about affordable housing and cost of living consistently appear among the most important issues for voters in the state . Census data estimate the share of state residents living in poverty at 9.4%, which is less than the reported 11.5% living in poverty nationwide.
Persons in poverty are slightly greater in Denver; however, both areas report fewer shares of individuals without health insurance . Until recently, Colorado’s population growth consistently ranked among the nation’s largest. The state’s 16.9% population growth from 2000 to 2010 placed it in the top quintile. Colorado’s population growth of 14.8% from 2010 to 2020 was the sixth largest in the nation and exactly double the national average . As a result of its rapidly growing population of 5.8 million, Colorado received an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives following the decennial reapportionment process. This raised its House delegation size to eight, which in 2024 included five Democrats and three Republicans. The past four years, however, have witnessed more sluggish population growth. According to the state demographer, population growth of less than 0.5% from 2021 to 2022 was the state’s lowest since 1989 . Also abnormal was the out-migration of residents moving to other states surpassing the number of migrants moving into Colorado in 2022. The state reports in-migration and out-migration by year from 2005 to the present, and 2022 was the first year with a net population loss when comparing the two figures across nearly two decades. Twenty-five counties in the state decreased in population relative to 2022. Among the counties that grew, only Weld and Douglas counties exceeded 2% growth. Affordable housing, cost of living, and taxes are commonly cited as motivating factors for those leaving the state. Most recent census data estimate that about half of the state’s 5.8 million residents live in the Denver metropolitan statistical area. The city and county of Denver is the largest in the state with an estimated population of 716,577 . Though it has slowed, the state’s population growth of nearly 2% since 2020 doubled the national population growth during this period. The number of residents in the city and county of Denver, however, has remained essentially constant since 2020 with a growth rate of just 0.1%. Both Denver and Colorado have proportionally fewer residents under 18 years of age and over 65 years of age relative to national averages. The percent of adult residents aged 19 to 64 in Colorado and Denver both exceed the national share with the difference between Denver and the United States figures nearly reaching 10%. Denver and Colorado continue to have less racial diversity than the nation as a whole, although each has a greater share of residents with Hispanic or Latinx origin. The census reports that 80% of Denver residents are white, nft hydroponic which is less than the 86% of whites residing in Colorado overall. While Denver and Colorado have fewer Black residents than the national average of 13.7%, the proportion of Hispanic or Latinx residents in each location exceeds the national percentage of 19.5% by about 8% and 3%, respectively. The census estimates that 13.9% of Denver residents were born outside of the United States, which is slightly greater than the United States as a whole. Approximately 1 in 10 residents across the state of Colorado were foreign born .
Fifty-seven percent of Denver residents possess a college degree compared to 45.9% of Coloradans and 34.3% of all residents of the United States.The Colorado General Assembly remained in Democratic control following the 2022 elections. The 100 lawmakers elected to the 74th meeting of the Colorado General Assembly were the most diverse group in history, which continued a diversification trend. Notably, Colorado became just the second state in the nation to elect a majority female legislature with several women serving in key leadership positions, including Julie McCluskie as Speaker of the House. First-time legislators comprised about one-third of the total. Regarding racial diversity in the legislature, nearly all legislators currently representing rural districts are white, while those representing urban areas are increasingly Black or Latinx . One hundred percent of Senators and 94% of Representatives elected from rural districts are white. White legislators also commonly represent suburban districts, constituting 78% of suburban House districts and 92% of suburban Senate districts. Much greater racial and ethnic diversity exists among those representing urban districts. One-third of senators elected from urban districts are either Black or Latinx, compared to 42% in the House Representatives. The political divisions between representatives of rural and urban that exist in many other states likewise exist in Colorado . Divergent views on many issue areas commonly overlap with important differences in legislator identity, experience, and perspective . During the 2022 election cycle Democrats picked up an additional five seats in the state House and two seats in the state Senate for majorities of 46-19 and 23-12, respectively. Unified Democratic government has existed in Colorado since Democrats regained majority-party status in the Senate after the 2018 elections. A Democratic super majority in the House and near super majority in the Senate represent the largest partisan advantage in the state legislature in nearly a century. Prospects for Republicans to regain a majority in either chamber appear dismal in the near future barring a seismic disruption to the status quo. Republican candidates for state and federal office have a similarly abysmal record across the past several election cycles. Former President Donald Trump held a double-digit disapproval rating in the state upon leaving office, and Republican candidates of all stripes have struggled to overcome Trump’s unpopularity as the party’s standard-bearer. Trump lost the 2024 presidential election in Colorado by 11%, which is more than twice as large as his margin of defeat to Hillary Clinton in 2016. The erosion of support for Republican candidates for statewide public office has occurred rapidly over the past decade. Before Trump took office, Republican candidates commonly garnered electoral majorities sufficient to win elections. In the 2014 midterm elections, for example, Republicans won four of the five statewide races including an upset defeat of Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Udall. The only Democrat to win the state that year was incumbent Governor John Hickenlooper who narrowly defeated his Republican opponent by just three percentage points. Six years later, Democrats won all six statewide elections and majorities in both legislative chambers, while also holding both U.S. Senate seats and most of the state’s congressional delegation. Neither party had accomplished such a feat since the Democrats did in 1936 . Though it may have seemed implausible at the time, Republicans performed even worse in 2022 as Democrats expanded their majority in the congressional delegation by winning the highly competitive new 8th congressional district and made further gains in each chamber of the state legislature. Completely uncompetitive, Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and treasurer lost by an average of 14 points. The 2022 governor’s race exemplified the Republican Party’s current inability to complete at the state level. A contested GOP primary witnessed entrepreneur and University of Colorado Regent, Heidi Ganahl emerge victorious. Although Colorado is one of five states in the Union that has never elected a woman to serve as U.S. senator or governor, many considered Ganahl a strong candidate given her business credentials and electoral experience as the last Republican candidate to win a statewide race. In her prior campaign for CU Regent at-large, Ganahl received52% of the vote, which gave Republicans a one seat majority on the University of Colorado Board of Regents. A comparison of voter registration data at the time of the November 2014 elections to the present also provides evidence of the state’s ongoing political transformation. Once a reliable red state in presidential politics, Colorado only cast its electoral votes for the Democratic presidential ticket once in the ten elections from 1968 to 2004.