Glossary

Comparable properties

Comparable properties are similar homes or lots the county sets next to yours so it can land on an approximate value for the tax side of the work. People often say comps (short for comparables). Same word sometimes shows up when people buy or sell; here it always means the county's own comparison list, not a bank appraisal for a loan and not a realtor packet.

The summary control links to the county comparables file on parcelsearch.arapahoegov.com. The county hosts this file. The link often returns no file found. Per the Assessor's office: The county site posts comps for the current year only. If your value did not change from 2025 to 2026, no new comps grid appears online. The county also stated it would no longer make the 2025 comps available. Those prior comps still apply, but the county download does not provide them. The office expects comps online again for every parcel after 2027 valuation postcards, in late April or early May.

De-Brucing

De-Brucing is a nickname for a ballot measure that lets a Colorado local government keep and spend revenue that TABOR (the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights) would otherwise limit. People use the name because Douglas Bruce helped write and pass TABOR. Hearing "de-Bruce" in the news usually means this kind of revenue vote, not a brand-new tax by itself.

On a property-tax bill, a de-Brucing measure lets the government keep revenue that TABOR would otherwise require returning to taxpayers. The government may then end a temporary tax credit that had lowered the mill rate on your bill so it stayed under the old keep-limit. What you pay on that bill line can rise even when the ballot said there was no new tax and no higher maximum mill rate. Raising the legal rate cap is a separate voter decision.

Official TABOR explainers: Colorado Department of Revenue (TABOR) (opens in a new tab) and the Colorado General Assembly TABOR page (opens in a new tab).

Debt-free schools mill levy

Debt-free schools mill levy is school-finance wording for a property-tax mill levy under Colorado law (C.R.S. 22-54-108.7). Littleton Public Schools uses that name in its budget materials and ties it to Ballot Issue 4C, which voters approved in November 2020.

LPS's adopted budget describes the levy as putting new tax money into a supplemental capital construction, technology, and maintenance fund so the district can pay those facility and tech costs with tax cash rather than by selling new bonds for them. That is why districts call it "debt-free." It does not mean your tax bill has no school debt: LPS still has separate bond debt from other elections (including the November 2018 building bond).

English wording shown for Ballot Issue 4C in the Who authorized this? trail is an AI translation of a county Spanish sample ballot. It is not the legal English ballot text. Research details are under Official documents we could not find on the Sources page.

Littleton Public Schools defines the phrase in its 2025-2026 Adopted Budget glossary (opens in a new tab). The Colorado General Assembly's Debt-free Schools Act (HB16-1354) (opens in a new tab) is the statute that created this kind of mill levy. Arapahoe County's 2020 Official Summary Report (opens in a new tab) records the Ballot Issue 4C result.

Land use code (LUC, comps grid)

LUC is the assessor's land use code. It captures how the property is classed for assessment (mostly residential subclasses on this worksheet). It is not the same as zoning.

Colorado publishes standard subclass codes with land/improvement code pairs assessors follow. Below are frequent residential examples (not every code in the state). Exact wording comes from Assessors' Library, Chapter 6: Property Classification (opens in a new tab).

Single-family: land 1112, improvement 1212
Duplex or triplex: land 1115, improvement 1215
Multi-family, 4 to 8 units: land 1120, improvement 1220
Multi-family, 9 units and up: land 1125, improvement 1225
Residential condominium (improvement): 1230
Manufactured home (example pairing): land 1135, improvement 1235

Your comps row should agree with your parcel classification in county records; if something looks off, verify on property search (opens in a new tab).

Property classification

How the county labels your property type for tax rules (which assessment rates apply). It is not zoning.

Common county labels:

Improvement means buildings or other structures on the land. Most homes with a house show this.
Real is often used for land or simpler real-property rows (many vacant lots). The same word can also appear in the separate Tax roll field below, so the two labels can look interchangeable even though they answer different questions.
Personal / PersProp is the county's class word for personal property (business equipment, fixtures, and similar). It is not a house-and-land parcel. The same word often appears on the Tax roll field. Residents usually hear business personal property; the export still stores the short label Personal.
StateAssessed means valued under state assessment rules instead of the usual county path.
Possessory covers possessory interests (for example some leases on public land).

Your notice may say Residential or Commercial while the county record says Improvement. Same parcel, two naming systems, not a sign something is wrong.

Tax roll is a different field from property classification. It names which tax roll the parcel sits on (often Real). Classification describes what is being assessed; Tax roll identifies the parcel's tax-roll category. Seeing Real in both places is common and does not mean they are the same field.

TABOR

TABOR stands for the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Colorado voters added it to the state constitution in 1992 (Article X, Section 20). It caps how much tax money many state and local governments may keep. Without voter permission to keep more, money collected above that limit must go back to taxpayers. TABOR also usually requires voter approval before a government adopts a new tax or raises a tax rate.

On a property-tax bill, some local governments stay under the keep-limit with a temporary tax credit that lowers the mill rate shown on the bill. That means they collect less up front. It is not the same as refunding money already collected over the limit. Voters can approve a measure that lets the government keep and spend more without raising the maximum mill rate. Coloradans often call that kind of vote de-Brucing. That is different from raising the legal mill-rate cap itself.

Official state explainers: Colorado Department of Revenue (TABOR) (opens in a new tab) and the Colorado General Assembly TABOR page (opens in a new tab).

Valuation grade (comps grid)

Valuation grade is a county code for quality and overall condition together in the worksheet: materials, finishes, upkeep, and how the home compares to typical new construction in its class. It is not a school-style letter grade report card.

Loan appraisal reports (such as standardized single-family forms) often split quality and condition into separate ratings. Assessors' mass appraisal models commonly fold those ideas into fewer worksheet fields so comparisons stay consistent across many parcels.

Arapahoe's comps sheet does not publish a full plain-English ladder for every grade. For what a grade means on your parcel, ask the county or use materials tied to their appraisal system.

For CAMA vocabulary in Colorado practice, Assessors' Library Chapter 8: Assessment Planning (opens in a new tab) discusses computer-assisted mass appraisal and model-based work without replacing your county's own grading scale.