State lawmakers return to the Capitol to discuss rising property taxes.

Governor Jared Polis has called a special session that will begin on August 26 and last at least three days.

The meeting followed a compromise between supporters and opponents of two property tax ballot measures that would provide an estimated $270 million in tax relief per year.

Together with the measures already taken by lawmakers, this amounts to a total relief of one billion dollars per year for homeowners.

Supporters of the voting measures have agreed to withdraw them if the compromise is adopted.

Polis says Colorado’s property tax war will soon be over.

“Fighting this battle every six months to every year is not good for the state and we want to put an end to it,” he said.

He added that the compromise – which caps the amount of annual revenue local governments can collect – will prevent the kind of increase in revenue Coloradans experienced last year.

“We need predictability. We need stability. The coalition is big enough to last in the long run, in my opinion. That’s really the goal here,” Polis said.

His other goal is to block two ballot measures that he says go too far by limiting property tax revenue increases to 4% per year.

The compromise instead caps the tax increases at 5.25 percent for municipalities and 6 percent for schools. The tax rate on residential real estate would fall from 6.7 percent to at least 6.4 percent, and the tax rate on commercial real estate would be 25 percent for all businesses.

“It may not be everything everyone wants, but we want to make sure people are willing to stick with it,” Polis said.

Among those people is Michael Fields, president of Advance Colorado, a conservative group that is pushing the ballot measures along with business group Colorado Concern.

“We have agreed not to take any action on property taxes in the future, provided they stick to that agreement – that legislators don’t go back and try to raise tax rates or change things,” Fields said.

He was one of six people who negotiated the deal. The group included Senators Barb Kirkmeyer and Chris Hansen, Polis’ chief of staff Alec Garnett, Budget Director Mark Ferrandino and House Speaker Julie McCluskie.

They negotiated the compromise last month, but dozens of groups across the political spectrum support it.

“I am confident that this agreement will provide immediate financial relief to families,” Kirkmeyer said. “But at the same time, the cap ensures that there will be no increase in co-payments in the future.”

While voters can raise the cap, Fields said the compromise requires local governments to make clear what they are asking voters to do. “They have to say, ‘Do you want to exempt this cap for this district?'” Fields said.

While Fields is confident lawmakers will embrace the compromise, he expects some drama. “I think there will be bills coming from both sides of the aisle. I think the deal is the deal, and I don’t think any other things are going to get through,” he said.

Among the expected bills is a bill that would put a ballot bill before voters, thereby preventing future property tax initiatives.

If the compromise fails, supporters could try to overturn it. Local governments also have yet to comment on the compromise that affects them most.

Sept. 6 is the deadline to withdraw measures from the November ballot. Fields says he is prepared to move forward with Initiatives 50 and 108 if the compromise is not passed.