Wall Street Journal:

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis called a special session this week to debate a tax-cut deal he struck with legislative leaders. In the short term, homeowners would get a roughly 10% tax-rate reduction—a welcome change after property values jumped as much as 63% in booming towns from 2021 to 2023.

More promising is the bill’s long-term relief. The agreement would cap the increase in local tax revenue at 10.5% over the two-year cycle when properties are reassessed, ensuring that the next upswing in home prices won’t hit tax bills as hard. Along with a 14% commercial-rate cut, these changes would return about $1.6 billion a year to property owners, says the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting.

Once approved the cap would become part of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which has served as a break on the state’s taxes. Any increase to its rates or assessment cap would require a ballot measure.

The proposal is the best offer to date from Mr. Polis, who has floated smaller relief in the past but has been pushed toward a more substantive tax reform. Advance Colorado, a free-market advocacy group, managed to put a pair of proposals on the ballot that would reduce residential and commercial property tax rates by 20% and 17%, respectively. But the group has agreed to pull the measures if Mr. Polis gets his own cut through the Democratic-controlled Legislature.