Sonnenberg Loses

Sonnenberg Loses

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Well I got an email from Julie Gentz, the victim of what I will call the Colorado Department of Revenue scandal wherein the Gentz family was issued tax credits by the Colorado Department of Revenue in the state conservation easement program and then, along with many others, was asked to pay the state back along with interest and penalties. A major player in trying to right the wrong was Colorado State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg.

According to the Journal Advocate, a local newspaper, Sonnenberg held hearings spotlighting the problems and abuses in the state conservation easement program, but the conservation easement proposal Sonnenberg carried in the Senate died in the Senate Finance Committee, largely due to its $100 million-plus cost. I talked with Julie Gentz: "I would say that Sonnenberg had the correct legislation but support was not there with some of the other legislators. They had the high cost of repaying the wrongs that were done to the landowners and it was not an issue the other legislators felt was at the top of their spending priorities. There are employees within the Department of Revenue who have wrongly exceeded their authority and they are not going to be held accountable. In exceeding their authority they have harmed citizens and the citizens are not going to be repaid for their harm."

For over 10 years, the Department of Revenue has rejected appraisals tied to tax credits landowners have filed. As a result, those who have donated property to land trusts have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax credits and legal costs, and complain there is still no remedy for their plight.

The conservation easement proposal Sonnenberg carried in the Senate died in the Senate Finance Committee, largely due to its $100 million-plus cost.

"I don't know where we go from here," Sonnenberg said. "To me it's never too late to the do the right thing."

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