Boulder County’s Senior Property Tax Worker Program was designed to help financially struggling older homeowners offset their annual county property taxes by working part-time county jobs. But as inflation soars, property taxes rise and homeowners insurance premiums spike, the need for a functional program has never been greater — and the current one isn’t keeping up.
County officials readily admit that the program is outdated, while there’s little near-term prospect of Colorado legislative reforms that could make it work as intended. And with budget strain from Trump administration cuts, the chances of passing those reforms appear even slimmer.
The program originated at the state level in the early 1990s, but as later laws surrounded it, the statute became less effective, officials say.
“It’s a fantastic concept,” said Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann. “But unfortunately, state law has not kept up.” The law “no longer works in practice,” she added, even as people still apply.
Sandy Harriss, 73, who retired from an 18-year University of Colorado career as a library technician, said she has applied many times for clerical work through the program but has never even been contacted.
”I don’t expect to get called at this point,” she said. “I send in the application each year without much hope.” While Harriss says she is “not in dire financial need,” working to defray some of the county portion of her property tax would help her.
Boulder County is one of the last counties in Colorado still running a version of the program, Stolzmann said — and to do that, the county had to create a workaround that doesn’t rely on problematic portions of the state statute.
That generated its own problems. “It means we have to fully employ the seniors that want to work off the county portion of their taxes,” like any regular employee, Stolzmann said.
“They have to be fully on-boarded and enrolled in county programs, and they have to pay Social Security and PERA [Public Employees’ Retirement Association] taxes on their earnings,” she said. “The additional complications have made the program much more expensive to run,” although it doesn’t have a specific budget.
Under the program, participating property owners over age 60 can earn money equal to the Boulder County portion of their total property taxes up to $1,000. The program doesn’t offset other components of the total property tax, such as cities, schools and library districts.
Program workers are paid the current Colorado minimum hourly wage of $14.81, meaning a maximum of 68 hours working at a part-time county job. Participants are referred to jobs based on the senior’s skills and availability. But hiring is done by individual departments, and those jobs are few and far between.
Participants still must pay their full property taxes, like everyone else, Stolzmann emphasized. They are then paid monthly, after the required taxes are deducted.
Few hired, many waiting
Stolzmann said fewer than 20 seniors are currently working in the program, with about 30 to 50 on the waiting list — many of whom will never get an interview. Neither the program’s website nor its application form mention how few jobs are available.
Stolzmann acknowledged the county can’t hire as many people as the state initially envisioned because its program has built-in flaws caused by working around state requirements. The county has ideas how to improve it, but is “unable to change the program without legislation from the state.”
Canceling the program isn’t a good option, either, she said, because that would “penalize” those the program does hire. “It is helping them, and they love it.”
She said the biggest improvements would come from making the payments tax-exempt. That would save money for the seniors hired and simplify program administration.
“This actually is quite a complicated piece of legislation to change, however, and the type of thing that takes a long time,” Stolzmann said. “We were unable to get a state legislator to sponsor a bill during this year’s legislative session.”
She explained that legislators can only sponsor five bills apiece, “so they have to pick and choose, and none of them picked this.”
Other changes would help as well, according to Boulder County Treasurer Paul Weissmann. He’d like to see the seniors paid the market wage for their work, and the ability for the county to negotiate intergovernmental agreements so participants could work off a greater share of taxes through other county taxing entities as well, such as the school district.
As the program now stands, participants end up making substantially less than minimum wage after taxes are figured in.
John Healy, a 75-year-old occupational safety and health administrator retiree, said he covers $500 to $600 on his $1,000 tax work-off as a docent at the Nederland Mining Museum – after taxes and gas driving there from his home in unincorporated Boulder County.
Healy said he is grateful for the work opportunity, but the pay isn’t a crucial factor. Rather, he enjoys learning about mining and meeting museum visitors. “I always feel good when I leave,” he said.
Economic strain highlights need
Meanwhile, inflation, rising property taxes and exploding homeowners insurance premiums —largely from climate risks — make the need for an effective senior tax worker program greater than ever.
According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, prices rose 21.2% nationally from 2020 to 2024. Boulder County property taxes increased by 20% to 25% over the same period, while the county’s part of that total has risen 18%, Weissmann said.
And Colorado has some of the fastest-rising homeowners premiums in the nation. The state saw a 57.9% increase from 2018 to 2023, far higher than the national average hike of 33.8%, according to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.
Even reasonably comfortable retirees are feeling the pinch. Harriss remarked that with taxes overall soaring, “I’m feeling priced out” of Boulder County. “I’m spending more of my savings just to stay here.”
She also finds the program’s lack of transparency frustrating. “If the website said we have only X-number slots, I’d say it’s no wonder I don’t get called. The lack of information makes me wonder how effective the program is.”
The program also isn’t means-tested to ensure only lower-income residents qualify. And it allows people to renew their part-time job annually, which further reduces the total number of jobs available to other applicants.
Healy, for instance, has been a mining museum docent since 2015. No questions have been asked about his personal financial situation, he said. He must reapply annually, but interviewing has been minimal because his capabilities are known.
Retention makes sense to Harriss once program workers are trained, but she said, “I wish they’d spell that out to temper expectations” of applicants.
Stolzmann agrees that Boulder’s own program is far from ideal, but says she and other county officials are still working on legislative reform.
”We’re still glad to be able to run a local program that allows qualifying seniors to work for the county,” she said. “It’s great on the one hand” to have some part-time jobs that can help, “but it’s not what people want as a retirement job. Mostly they just want to work their tax bill down” without a substantial part going toward still more taxes.