Is there any real value to the Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption?

Is the Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption actually worth anything?

Easy answer: not as much as when voters approved it back in 2006.
The US dollar has dropped in value by other a third. Our 2006 dollar has lost 35 cents, while the exemption has remained static (half of the first $200,000 in assessed value) since creation in 2006.

We see the opposite in property values. Denver's average home sale in 2006 was $288,000, and by 2021 had more than doubled to $612,000.

What voters sought for our disabled veterans back in 2006 cut 34% of an average home's tax bill. Today, the exemption covers less than 15% of the home's taxes; this drop in real value means the exemption is worth less than half when first authorized.

The value of the exemption voters approved for disabled veterans is worth much less today. While property values, property taxes and other expenses keep going up each year, the real value of the property tax exemption for disabled veterans, seniors and their survivors, is worth less and less each year as we watch the dollar deflate. And property taxes in real dollars keep going and up

The 2020 cost to Colorado for all categories of the property tax exemption was about $159,000,000. Disabled veterans and their survivors are only 2% of that.

Colorado isn't especially generous in our exemption. Nineteen other states exempt 100% of a totally disabled veteran's property taxes. No other state restricts TDIU veterans from their exemption.