Set the People Free: Why Property Tax Must Be Abolished to Restore Sovereignty

By Chaz Evanson, Candidate for Governor of Colorado

America was founded on the principle that people have God-given rights, chief among them, the right to life, liberty, and property. This triad, advanced by the philosopher John Locke and echoed by the Founders, is the foundation of personal sovereignty. Yet today, in the so-called “land of the free,” one of these rights has been slowly eroded, not by foreign invaders, but by domestic policy. I’m speaking of the assault on property ownership through property taxation.

While eliminating income tax is a worthy pursuit, and one I support, abolishing property tax is the greater and more urgent task if we are to restore the dignity, liberty, and stability of Colorado’s families. This tax is not just a burden; it is a betrayal of the American promise. Property tax is the government's way of saying, “You may buy it, you may build on it, you may work it, but you will never truly own it.” That is unacceptable in a constitutional republic.

Let us be clear: a nation where the government can seize your home if you fail to pay an annual tax is not a free nation. It is a renter’s society, where even the most responsible citizen is little more than a tenant under threat of eviction by the state.

Property Tax vs. Income Tax: A False Choice of Priorities. Much political energy is spent on income tax debates and rightly so. High income taxes disincentivize productivity, punish success, and drain economic vitality. But as burdensome as income tax may be, it is at least tethered to an activity: work. And while work is not truly optional because if a man does not work, he cannot eatit is still transactional. You earn, and the government takes a share. However unjust the rate, it is applied only when you labor. It is a tax on what you do.

Property tax, by contrast, is not tied to what you do, it is tied to what you have. It taxes you for simply existing on your own land. It does not matter if you are young or old, employed or unemployed, retired or disabled. Whether you work or not, whether you prosper or struggle, the tax remains. It is not occasional, it is eternal, enforced year after year until you sell, leave, or die. That’s not a tax on income; that’s a tax on being.

A Direct Assault on Natural Rights and Constitutional Order. John Locke wrote in his Second Treatise of Government that “the great and chief end… of men uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property.” That word—property, was expansive. It meant land, labor, tools, livestock, and the fruits of one’s effort. The Founders drew heavily from Locke when framing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, declared: “Government is instituted to protect property of every sort... This is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and liberty is violated by arbitrary seizures.”

Yet what is property tax if not a legalized form of perpetual seizure? If a family pays off its home, it still owes the government every year, under threat of lien and foreclosure. The state does not ask; it demands. You do not consent; you comply. That is not the spirit of the Constitution. That is not the letter of liberty.

Yes, Civilization Has a Cost, But Liberty Demands Stewardship. Let us also be honest: if we want to live in a first-world society, with paved roads, functioning schools, emergency services, disaster response, and a national defense, there is a cost. Freedom is not free, and civilization is not cheap. Responsible self-government includes providing for shared infrastructure and common defense.

But acknowledging that cost does not justify endless taxation or abusive policies. The issue is not whether government should collect taxes, the issue is whether it does so justly, transparently, and with restraint. It is not the government’s money. It is the People’s money. Those elected and appointed to manage those funds are stewards, not kings.

When taxes are collected, the People expect that money to be spent on what truly matters, not pet projects, partisan pork, ideological crusades, or bloated bureaucracies, but the basic and essential functions of a free and secure society. That is the social contract.

The blessings of liberty are not experienced through big government; they are experienced through just government. One that protects rights, preserves freedom, builds essential infrastructure, and otherwise gets out of the way. The People do not exist to serve the State. The State exists to serve the People.

That’s why property tax abolition is not a call for anarchy or neglect. It is a call for discipline. It is a call for lawful, limited, accountable government that knows the difference between what is necessary and what is not, and that respects the rights of citizens to own their land without perpetual ransom.

How Property Tax Creates Instability, Poverty, and Dependence. It is no accident that homelessness and housing instability are rising in lockstep with property taxes. As home values soar, so do assessments. Even if you never move or improve your home, your taxes may increase arbitrarily. For fixed-income retirees, young working families, veterans, and rural landowners, this can be catastrophic.

Elderly citizens are forced out of lifelong homes because they can no longer afford to pay the annual ransom. Working families are penalized for improving their property. And the poor are locked out entirely from wealth-building opportunities because they cannot afford the compounding tax costs of ownership.

All of this creates a cycle of dependency. If you cannot afford land, you must rent. If rent is unaffordable, you turn to subsidies. Dependence grows; freedom shrinks. The state becomes not only landlord, but provider. And citizens, rather than living free and owning their future, become clients of the bureaucracy.

A Landowning Citizen Is a Sovereign Citizen. When a man owns his land, he is never truly poor. He can grow food. He can build shelter. He can raise a family. He can retreat from tyranny. He can start over. Land is the foundation of independence. It is the material condition upon which all other freedoms rest.

The Founders knew this. George Washington, a farmer and land surveyor, declared, “The best way to preserve liberty is to disseminate property among the people.” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous.”

But property tax makes that vision impossible. You cannot be independent when your land is leased from the state. You cannot be sovereign when the government holds a lien over your head every year. You cannot be free when your foundational asset, your home, is never really yours.

The Moral and Biblical Case Against Property Tax. The biblical vision of property is one of stewardship and inheritance, not taxation. In Leviticus 25, God commands that each family in Israel was to retain its ancestral land. If they sold it, it was to be returned in the Year of Jubilee. The land was God’s gift to families, not a product of state permission.

Psalm 24 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” That includes your backyard. Not the assessor’s office. Not the tax board. God made the earth and gave mankind dominion. The civil government’s job is not to own the land by proxy, but to protect the people who do.

Property tax, therefore, is not just bad policy, it is a spiritual violation. It is an intrusion into what God has entrusted to families for their provision and stability. A godly government does not extort a man for occupying land God gave him to steward.

Abolishing Property Tax: Bold, Doable, and Right. Critics will ask: “How will the government fund schools and roads?” The answer is simple: the same way we fund other services, through sales taxes, use taxes, severance taxes, and voluntary participation in commerce. Colorado already has a relatively low income tax and robust economy. With proper reform, we can shift away from unjust property taxation and toward consumption-based funding models that respect ownership and liberty.

Other states are already moving in this direction. Texas has recently launched a Property Tax Elimination Plan. Florida has long prioritized low taxes and strong property rights. Colorado can lead in the Rockies by doing the same. We will phase out the tax in stages, cap increases immediately, protect senior citizens, and transition school funding to more equitable and voluntary models.

But make no mistake: this reform takes courage. It takes a moral commitment to the founding principles of our Republic. It takes leadership willing to say: The people’s land is not for sale, and not for rent. It is theirs, by right.

The Fruits of Liberty: What Happens When Property Tax Ends. Imagine a Colorado where every family, once their land is paid off, truly owns it. Where elderly couples are never driven from their homes. Where young couples can build on land without fear of assessment hikes. Where homesteads, ranches, and farms stay in families for generations. Where communities flourish because people are invested, stable, and rooted.

Ownership would skyrocket. Homelessness would plummet. Poverty would shrink. Responsibility and stewardship would rise. When people own what they live on, they take better care of it. They defend it. They build. They bless others. They belong.

Isn’t that the American dream?

Conclusion: Give the Land Back to the People. The battle for property tax abolition is more than a tax policy fight. It is a fight for liberty itself. It is a fight to restore sovereignty to the citizen and rein in the creeping tyranny of an all-powerful state. It is a fight that echoes the vision of our Founders and the will of our people.

We must not rest until Colorado recognizes that no man is free while the government holds his deed hostage. Until every person who has paid for his land can live on it in peace, without an annual threat of seizure. Until property, like liberty, is once again sacred and secure point. But as a cornerstone of a new birth of freedom in Colorado.

Because when the people own the land, the people own the future.