Is Broomfield getting into the mortgage business?

Remember Proposition HH, the 30% increase in property taxes that you voted NO on last November? Remember both the state and the local government ignored your vote and decided they would keep that huge increase? Guess what they've decided to do with your money that you could have used to live on?

Well, $1 million of your increased property tax money is going to be used by the City and County of Broomfield to subsidize 20 middle-income families' down payments on a home in the form of another loan to the homebuyer, due upon loan expiration, sale or transfer of the home - money due back to the City and County of Broomfield. “Support housing mobility and growth through the introduction of a down payment assistance program for middle-income earners (those with incomes between 80% and 100% AMI).”

This means we the taxpayers will no longer be helping the poor and downtrodden, we are helping those with incomes between about $86,000 and $107,000. They are taking money from you, via your property tax dollars, to provide support someone who may make more than you. Is there something wrong with this picture?

Item 6C in the January 23 2024 he agenda item references two subdivisions that have income-restricted housing , Dillon Pointe - New Homes Construction at Broomfield | Brightland Homes and Grand Vue - New Homes - Broomfield, CO | Century Communities. It would be interesting to have the information for both the price of the income-restricted housing and the non-restricted housing to see how much the taxpayer is already subsidizing.

CHAC’s website does not indicate it offers any programs as specified in the agenda. They offer a 5-year deferred repayment at 5% and immediate repayment at 3%. Broomfield is stating that it would be deferred for the entire 30 years at 2%. There is no program on CHAC’s website that indicates these terms are available.

Given the sales price scenarios in the agenda, here are the estimated payments assuming FHA Loans, 1% property tax for new construction, estimated homeowners insurance and monthly FHA Mortgage insurance. We guess both of these projects would have some sort of HOA, that has not been included in the estimate below.

Real estate sales are at a 30-year low right now because prices and interest rates are high.   Encouraging people to buy in this market, incentivizing them even, is not likely in their best interest. When the market corrects they will be stuck with no equity to play with to get out. If they insist on using this money to “assist” they are better off giving $12,000 a year ($1000/month) to help with rent. They could help a lot more people.

In the end, it is still money they took from you to give to someone who may earn more than you.

Laws Introduced so far at the Legislative Session...

As of last week, 160 bills have been introduced, here are only a couple:

• HB24-1065 Reduction of State Income Tax Rate Lowers rate from 4.4% to 4.0%. (Good Bill)
• HB24-1028 Overdose Prevention Centers Drug (injection sites are back).
• HB24-1075 Analysis of Universal Health-Care Payment System Here we go again, this could become the worst bill of the year.
• HB24-1026 Local Government Tax Payers' Bill of Rights Prior Voter Approval Requirement

We have added the e-mail addresses and phone numbers for your legislator's and the governor at the bottom of this page. Here is a link to a webpage that lists the freedom score for each state legislator on every bill they voted on.

Former Legislator Kevin Lundberg always does a great job summarizing the best and most egregious bills, sign up for his newsletter.

Why do we have laws? Isn't government's job to protect our individual rights, not to box us into a corner so that we all become criminals?

The Caucus Process...

And how to get on the ballot in Colorado.

Caucus is a grassroots effort to get candidates on the ballot. During caucus, citizens gather in schools and other buildings to hear candidates and elect delegates who are sent to the state assembly to vote candidates onto the ballot. Caucus takes place between March 5 and March 9 this year.

A candidate can also petition onto the ballot. Candidates for State Senate and House need to collect the lesser of either 1,000 signatures or 30% of the votes cast in the last general election. This story also discusses the requirements to get on the ballot and the current candidates running for seats this November.

Sustainability…Except when the sun doesn’t shine     

Colorado plans to phase out two coal-fired power plants between 2026 and 2027. Is our grid ready to handle this? If we had to totally rely on wind and solar in our last below zero temperatures, would our warm homes be at jeopardy? Independence Institute did a study on Colorado’s Energy Future under Polis. There is a lot of information in the report and it concludes that nuclear energy would be a better option in Colorado, where wind and sun are highly variable dependencies. Xcel energy did cut back on their unprecedented renewables plan however, the cost of sustainable energy is very high.

Hawaii just suffered through rolling blackouts while relying on renewable energy during a confluence of bad “luck”. Apparently, the island received heavy rains which then got into the control system, which tripped a unit. Some units, that could have replaced the tripped system, were offline due to scheduled maintenance. The heavy rains blocked the sun’s energy from the solar panels, which lost battery power after a few hours. They had closed their coal plant which would have kept the batteries charged. The garbage-burning facility output was also reduced, thought to be due to the weather.

Do you get the idea that they are just throwing all of this out there to make themselves feel better about doing something?

If you are interested in the problem with wind farms, here is another story, that discusses subsidies and how Xcel Energy makes money outside what the Public Utilitiles Commission (PUC) grants them.

Maybe the pay gap is so wide between the rich and the poor, because maybe the rich know how to make money in the form of taxpayer subsidies.

The Tragic Reality of Equity Policies

There is a lot of talk these days about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our local and national politics. Has this been tried before and what happened?

What is the end result of a policy on equity (equal outcomes)? We don’t have to look to far back into the past to see the end result. Remember Pol Pot and the killing fields in Cambodia? He the leader of the communist Khmer Rouge government from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge attempted to socially engineer a classless, communist society who wanted everyone to have equal outcomes so they decided to get rid of intellectuals, city residents, and others. Detention center S-21, killed about 19,993 people out of every 20,000 detained there. Some historians regard the Pol Pot regime as one of the most barbaric and murderous in recent history.

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