The alert is planned for 11 a.m. Thursday. The test will be sent to all mobile devices located within the city and county of Denver, regardless of where the phones are registered or if they have out-of-area phone numbers. State and local tests are not enabled by default, however, so users will need to turn it on their phones’ settings to receive it.

The test is being timed in recognition of National Preparedness Month and is being conducted by the Denver Office of Emergency Management. The alerts are designed to send warnings about imminent dangers, including severe weather, public safety and other local emergencies. The test alert should be clearly marked as such.

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Simcox was shot Saturday afternoon while doing paperwork in his marked police truck on the median of U.S. 36 just west of Federal Boulevard in Westminster. Simcox returned fire and killed the assailant, according to law enforcement. Simcox was taken to Denver Health, where he was treated and released that afternoon.

The shooter, a man who was driving a black Chevrolet pickup truck, has not been publicly identified.

His name will be released by the Adams County Coroner’s Office, said Trooper Gabriel Moltrer. The shooting is still under investigation as investigators look into a possible motive and interview Simcox.

The coroner’s office could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

People with information about the shooting can contact Colorado State Patrol at 303-239-4501.

In a statement Monday morning, Gov. Jared Polis said he spoke with Simcox and he wished him a “speedy recovery.”

“Colorado thanks Cpl. Tye Simcox for his courageous and brave actions to protect himself and our community,” Polis said in the statement.

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The Englewood Police Department reported at about 8:30 a.m. that it received an anonymous tip of an explosive device in the building that houses Englewood High School, Middle School and Leadership Academy at 3800 S. Logan St. The school district delayed class start time until 11 a.m. and students were bused to a separate school within the district.

Law enforcement, including local sheriff’s offices and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives swept the building with the help of K-9s and found nothing suspicious, according to a post on social media. The Englewood Police Department is investigating the incident.

The man sped through the Grand Lake entrance to the park late Sunday afternoon and law enforcement tried to pull him over but did not pursue him because of his high speed and reckless driving on the 48-mile stretch of mountain highway, park officials said in a news release.

He was later identified as a resident of Hudson who is suspected in a burglary case in Grand County.

Police tried to stop him at the Deer Ridge Junction and placed “stop sticks” near the Beaver Meadows entrance, but he continued to speed south past the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and crashed into another vehicle carrying three individuals, according to the release.

All three were taken to the hospital, one with critical injuries.

The man fled the scene after the crash and headed toward High Drive near Estes Park. He was arrested Monday in the same area.

The teen left his home near East Sixth Avenue and Laredo Street at about 6:50 p.m. Sunday. He was reported found at about 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Passersby found him in a drainage tunnel. Aurora police and the fire department freed him and he was taken to a hospital for evaluation, according to a social media post from the police.

“This was truly a team effort and we appreciate everyone who played a vital role in safely locating (the child),” the Aurora police department posted.

Passed as House Bill 1003 during the legislature’s special session last month, the law extends in perpetuity an exemption that was set to expire in tax year 2027. Personal property used to generate income for a business is typically taxed, though several exemptions exist.

This law extends the exemption that applies to agricultural equipment used on a farm or ranch to equipment used in controlled environmental agricultural facilities.

Nonpartisan legislative analysts did not have an estimate of how many facilities or how much money would be affected by the exemption.

“Colorado is proud to put food on tables across the state and around the world, and the success of our agricultural businesses and entrepreneurs is a key part of that,” Polis said in a news release after signing the bill into law during a ceremony at an Aurora greenhouse. “Today we are breaking down barriers and cutting taxes for Colorado greenhouses, helping to keep more money in the pockets of the hardworking Coloradans who help strengthen our economy.”

The measure was one of two bills to become law from the recently concluded special session on property taxes. The other, House Bill 1001, cut state assessment rates and was the lynchpin of a deal that stopped two ballot initiatives that would have forced deeper property tax cuts.

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If all goes as planned, the deal will calm the state’s multiyear tempest around property tax policy. The turbulence has included the repeal of a decades-old constitutional amendment that governed tax rates, the economic rollercoaster following the COVID pandemic and skyrocketing home values across metro Denver and much of the state.

“Fundamentally, the people of Colorado have had their concerns addressed: long-term relief, a reasonable cap (on tax growth) and over 4,000 entities funded by property taxes, including every school district, (will) have the stability that they need to plan and budget,” Gov. Jared Polis told The Denver Post in an interview Thursday. “ … With all the sort of chaos of the last few years, it’s been very hard on our fire districts, schools, library districts.”

House Bill 1001, which won final approval from the Senate shortly before he spoke, builds off a tax package signed in May that lowered assessment rates and capped how much property tax revenue collected by local governments and districts could grow. The new measure adds about $254 million in cuts to the $1.3 billion in reductions passed in the spring.

It’s expected to trim between $60 and $80 from the typical homeowner’s property tax bill in the 2025 tax year and about $179 the following year. Those are on top of the average $400 or so in savings this year from the prior package.

More importantly to local governments and legislative leaders, the deal passed Thursday will lead the conservative and business groups backing a pair of ballot measures that would’ve instituted stricter growth limits and deeper cuts — initiatives 50 and 108 — to withdraw them from the state’s November ballot. While the particular changes proposed by Initiative 108 would have saved the average homeowner more than $500 a year eventually, officials feared the financial toll on state and local government budgets.

Polis says he expects to sign the bill into law next week. Ahead of that, here is a look at several dynamics on display this week.

The power of power politics

Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and the property tax bill’s primary sponsor, opened the final debate Thursday by defending the process that sparked the special session. He sought to rebut recurring charges — including from his own colleagues — that the bill he was sponsoring was the result of a “backroom deal.”

“I think a dispassionate observer would come to the conclusion this was a public process,” he said, ticking off the public meetings at which the details of the plan were laid out. And he noted that legislative committees in recent days took public testimony.

The deal was negotiated outside public view by Hansen, other legislative leadership, the governor’s office and the supporters of the initiatives. While it’s true that its contours were publicly revealed earlier this month to the state’s Commission on Property Tax, those details had already been agreed upon.

Though support for the plan was bipartisan, lawmakers from both parties chafed at being called back to the Capitol essentially to ratify a deal they had no hand in crafting — and were largely unable to change. Some Republicans criticized the deal for not cutting taxes enough, while progressive Democrats said it exacerbated inequalities in the state and didn’t do enough to help lower-income property owners or renters.

Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, spoke at length Wednesday about the need to defend the legislature’s role in governance and said that “no” votes would send a “signal” that “if you want to tell us what to do, you need to understand that not everybody’s down for that.” Most lawmakers in the chamber stood in support as she spoke.

But ultimately, the bill passed. Comfortably. A total of just 22 lawmakers (out of 100), including Bacon, voted against the bill during its journey through the Capitol.

Outside interests had real leverage

Several lawmakers this week derisively referred to Michael Fields, the president of the Advance Colorado Institute and the ballot initiatives’ chief proponent, as “governor.”

Those criticisms only grew when no one from Advance Colorado or its ally, Colorado Concern, a business-oriented advocacy group, testified in support of the bill in committees.

Polis, asked about the moniker, pointed to the almost 200,000 Coloradans who signed petitions placing the initiatives on the ballot, adding: “I think the legislature found a better way to address (property taxes) than risky and divisive ballot initiatives.”

Separately, Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, noted lawmakers’ aversion to feeling like a rubber stamp.

“We reasoned through that,” he said, “because we also have to be leaders, and we also have to stand up and say, ‘Personally, this is not what I would have wanted.’ … I feel comfortable in what we did because it was a true compromise.”

In a statement, Fields called the bill’s passage “a huge win for Colorado taxpayers,” who have faced property tax increases of 30% or more.

An end to the property tax wars?

Advance Colorado, as part of the deal, has promised not to run any other ballot initiatives around property taxes for at least six years — a period that stretches beyond Polis’ and many lawmakers’ remaining time in office — if the agreed-upon terms are met.

That deal was made in writing, though it has no statutory condition locking it in place more rigidly.

“We get permanency. We get stability here,” Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican involved in the negotiations, said Thursday. “So hopefully it does end the property tax wars, because we are getting to a permanent fix. In the past, we didn’t get the job done. It doesn’t mean that we failed; we just didn’t get it all the way done.”

Others weren’t so sure.

Rep. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat who voted for the deal and said it was the right thing to do, said its passage would give legislators “a reprieve.” Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat who voted against it, said she’d “be shocked” if this latest bill actually brought an end to property tax battles at the legislature.

“We’ll be back here doing the same thing again,” she predicted.

A preview of debates to come

Some Democratic lawmakers introduced policy proposals to limit property tax relief or change how taxes are calculated — ideas that, though swiftly killed this week, may come back in January and open up a new front in the fight.

Fire chiefs from across the state also came to the Capitol to testify against expected cuts to their budgets resulting from the bill. They pulled back their full-scale lobbying only when they won promises from elected officials that they would prioritize finding more stable ways to fund fire districts in upcoming sessions.

“It’s concerning to me that there’s a need with our local governments,” said Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat. “How do we balance that need?”

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The legislation now goes to Gov. Jared Polis for his signature — and is expected to prompt the conservative and business backers of the ballot measures to withdraw them.

The Senate approved the compromise bill, House Bill 1001, handily on a 30-4 vote on the special session’s fourth day. Polis celebrated the bill’s passage late Thursday morning, saying it would provide predictability, stability and relief to property owners — without the risks posed by the ballot measures.

“Fundamentally, the people of Colorado have had their concerns addressed: Long-term relief, a reasonable cap (on tax growth), and over 4,000 entities funded by property taxes, including every school district, (will) have the stability that they need to plan and budget,” Polis told The Denver Post in an interview. “ … With all the sort of chaos of the last few years, it’s been very hard on our fire districts, schools, library districts. I think we will all benefit from the stability.”

He expects to hold a signing ceremony next week, once some necessary legislative steps happen — and the ballot initiatives at the center of the fight, initiatives 50 and 108, are officially pulled from the ballot by Advance Colorado and Colorado Concern.

That has been a minor controversy, with Michael Fields, the chief proponent of the ballot measures, saying he would pull the initiatives once the bill was signed. Fields said Thursday he was working on the scheduling with the governor’s office.

“Today’s vote marks a huge win for Colorado taxpayers, who have been hit with 30 percent average property tax increases,” said Fields, the president of the Advance Colorado Institute, in a statement. “For two years, we have said the solution taxpayers need is to cut taxes significantly and then put a cap in place so Colorado can avoid this crisis in the future. This bill gets that job done.”

The bill will cut property taxes by about $254 million statewide and builds off an earlier $1.3 billion cut signed into law in May. One analysis, by the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a progressive think tank, estimates the average homeowner will see a modest additional property tax decrease of $62 in the next tax year, and about $179 in the 2026 tax year. That analysis also estimates that 62% of the relief in the bill will go to nonresidential property.

The earlier relief bill in the spring had significantly more impact. But the special session measure offered the ballot measure proponents an additional victory in exchange for their agreement to back off their initiatives — which, by CFI’s projections, eventually would have saved the average homeowner more than $500 a year, while taking a financial toll on state and local government budgets.

In the Senate’s Thursday vote, Sens. Mark Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican, and Democratic Sens. Nick Hinrichsen, Sonya Jaquez Lewis and Lisa Cutter opposed the legislation.

On Wednesday evening, before the Senate took an initial voice vote on the bill, Hinrichsen, from Pueblo, said “working class Coloradans have been a pawn of this process,” echoing concerns voiced by other Democrats in recent days about state officials’ negotiations with the initiatives’ supporters.

The ballot measure drove the special session. Legislative leaders, Fields and the governor’s office crafted the deal over the summer before unveiling it to the state’s property tax commission earlier this month. House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, affirmed earlier this week that the proposal was “to play defense” against the measures.

It nonetheless led to ample criticism from Democrats who felt they were being called into a special session at the behest of special interests that were threatening to gut state and local budgets if the legislature didn’t pass laws to their liking.

At a pre-session caucus meeting open to the public, Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat, referred to the deal as being driven by “Gov. Fields and Mr. Polis.”

Asked about the criticism Thursday, Polis pointed to the nearly 200,000 signatures Fields had to gather to put the measures on the ballot to begin with. He praised the bipartisan work to give Coloradans additional relief.

“Hundreds of thousands of Coloradans put their name on petitions for property tax relief,” Polis said. “I think the legislature found a better way to address that than risky and divisive ballot initiatives.”

Ahead of the final vote, Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat and architect of this bill and several other property tax measures in recent years, said the deal had been the culmination of nearly a decade of work to change the state’s property tax code. He repeated his objection to charges the special session was driven by a backroom deal.

Hansen also argued that passing the bill would end the yearslong standoff over property tax policy.

“We have ended a cycle of destructive ballot initiatives,” Hansen said.

In a statement, Dave Davia, the CEO of Colorado Concern, a business-oriented advocacy group, said: “This bill is critical relief for struggling homeowners and small businesses caught in a cost-of-living crisis in Colorado. It shows the state can responsibly cut property taxes and cap future tax increases while protecting the local services communities rely on.”

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Given the twists and turns in the state’s property tax debate, it’s easy to be confused about why lawmakers — who gave final approval to a breakthrough deal Thursday morning — have convened again, starting Monday. Here is a quick look at why they’ve been meeting, what they’re considering and the potential impact as they look to avoid two big measures on the November ballot.

► How we got here: Soaring property values, combined with the 2020 repeal of the Gallagher Amendment — which had stabilized residential property taxes — led to recent steep increases in property tax bills in many parts of Colorado. Lawmakers have been passing temporary relief for years, including during a November special session. They landed on a long-term policy last spring — but it didn’t placate outside conservative and business advocacy groups that are running ballot initiatives in November to force steeper cuts.

Gov. Jared Polis called a second special session this month to head off the measures as part of a deal with their backers, hoping to avert what state officials see as a financial shock for state and local governments if the initiatives pass.

► Ballot measures: Initiative 50 would cap property tax revenue growth and Initiative 108 would reduce assessment rates that determine how much of a property’s value is taxed. Estimates are that Initiative 108 would cut statewide property tax collections by more than $2 billion a year, with the state needing to either compensate local governments or let them deal with the lost revenue.

► Compromise bill: The ballot measures’ sponsors have agreed to pull them if lawmakers approve the new House Bill 1001. It would cut assessment rates more modestly for both commercial and residential properties, reducing statewide collections by about $254 million. That’s on top of $1.3 billion in cuts passed by lawmakers in the spring. (Update: The Senate took its final vote on HB-1001 Thursday, sending it to Polis for his signature.)

► Homeowner impact: How the scenarios compare is complicated. But under the law passed in the spring, the average savings for the owner of a typical $700,000 home was expected to be roughly $400, depending on local mill levies. The estimated additional savings from the special session bill are less than $100 for most homeowners, with varying projections putting the average in the $60-80 range.

If the ballot measures were to pass, Initiative 108 would have the most direct impact. Initially, it actually would increase taxes because the spring tax relief law would be invalidated. But in the 2025 tax year, 108 would reduce taxes by $539 for the average homeowner compared to current law, according to an analysis by the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a progressive think tank.

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Just after noon, the Colorado House passed the measure, which would provide homeowners and other property owners with modest additional tax relief, on a 45-18 vote, as 15 of the majority Democrats voted against it. By mid-afternoon, the bill cleared its first hurdle in the Senate with a unanimous vote out of committee, and it passed a first Senate voice vote shortly before 6:45 p.m.

That sets the bill up for final passage — and a trip to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk — Thursday.

House Bill 1001 builds off a property tax cut signed into law in May. If passed, it would reduce property tax collections statewide by about $254 million — on top of the $1.3 billion cut passed in the spring — by further trimming the state’s assessment rate. That rate, along with local mill levies, is used to establish how much in taxes the property owner owes.

The change would save the average homeowner about $62 for the upcoming property tax year and $179 the following year, according to an analysis by the Colorado Fiscal Institute; lawmakers’ estimates for the initial impact have been slightly higher. The bill also would expand the nonresidential properties that qualify for commercial rates set in the spring measure, passed as Senate Bill 233.

The progressive think tank’s analysis found that 62% of the tax cuts proposed in the special session bill would go to nonresidential property owners. The analysis did not have an average estimated savings for that class of property.

But the true stakes of the special session, backers of the deal say, is that it will result in Advance Colorado, a conservative advocacy group, yanking initiatives 50 and 108 from the November ballot. If passed by voters, those measures would force deeper cuts to the assessment rates, worth potentially billions of dollars, and set stricter caps on how much property tax revenue local governments can keep.

“For the yeses and the noes, I believe that passing this bill and getting those initiatives off the ballot is the responsible, most important thing that we can do today — that we can do for the future of this state,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie told her colleagues shortly before the vote.

The House also passed a proposed ballot measure Wednesday that would have required local voters to approve of any future property tax changes instituted by a statewide vote. Democrats had embraced that bill as a way to help prevent new statewide property tax wars — like the one that sparked the special session.

But Republicans opposed it, and that opposition ultimately sank the measure later in the day in the Senate, where at least one Republican needed to back the bill. Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat who sponsored the measure, voluntarily pulled the bill during a committee meeting.

That leaves lawmakers with a written promise from Advance Colorado and its allies, including the business-oriented Colorado Concern, not to pursue similar property tax measures for at least six years should the property tax bill pass as written.

Some lawmakers had bristled at being pulled into a special session to codify a deal already agreed to by the governor, legislative leaders and outside groups. That frustration prompted a series of speeches from House Democrats decrying the process and lamenting that they were being forced to pick between cutting local services now or risking deeper cuts if the ballot measures pass.

“I don’t work for somebody who is not on this floor. Or even, dare I say, behind the glass,” said Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat and the House’s assistant majority leader. She was referring to the governor’s office, located a floor below, and to lobbyists who watch the House work through glass windows.

She emphasized: “It is our job to make law.”

As Bacon spoke, a large number of lawmakers from both parties stood at their desks, a sign of solidarity in the chamber.

Rep. Stephanie Luck, a Penrose Republican, criticized the process that sparked the special session. Rep. Tim Hernández, a Denver Democrat who lost his primary in June, spoke at length about his own upbringing — and the property his family wasn’t ever able to afford — and contrasted it with the forces that he said compelled lawmakers back to the Capitol this week.

“There are a lot of brilliant poor kids who grow up in this state, whose families don’t get the opportunity to own property, who don’t get the opportunity to come here and be heard in this legislature — poor folks, oppressed folks who don’t get a special session,” Hernández said.

After lengthy testimony from Democrats and Republicans alike, McCluskie and Minority Leader Rose Pugliese — a Republican who co-sponsored the bill with the speaker — both acknowledged concerns from within their own causes.

But they asked their members to support the deal anyway.

“Is it a move to play defense right now? You bet it is. We provide assurances to our communities. We provide assurances to our hardworking families that we’re not going to take $630 million from our schools,” McCluskie said, referring to one projected impact of Initiative 108’s passage.

The bill passed the House comfortably, though with progressive Democrats casting the majority of the no votes.

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