Broomfield Taxpayer Matters

July 10, 2023

Welcome, and thank you for following Broomfield Taxpayer Matters.

“I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.” ~ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

Important: The Charter Committee will meet again on Monday, July 17th, 2023 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at 1 DesCombes Dr., in the Council Chambers. Updates from this meeting can be read under our Charter Review Committee page.

Another town hall is being scheduled for Thursday, July 27th, 2023, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the George DiCiero City and County Building, Council Chambers. The format will be interactive with a facilitator.

The Charter Review Committee discussed the following at the July 3rd meeting. It is summarized here, more details can be found on the Charter Review Committee page at the Broomfield Taxpayer Matters website.

Interactive townhalls planned for July, August September
Thursday, July 27th, from 6 to 8 p.m. in council chambers
Wednesday, August 23rd, from 6 to 8 p.m. in council chambers
Monday, September 18th, from 6 to 8 p.m. in council chambers
Reviewing redline edits in the following sections:
Prefatory Synopsis/Preamble
Remove references to original committee
Make sure all references are to City "and County"
Chapter 1 - Boundaries
no changes
Chapter 2 - Municipal Powers
added language in blue
Charter is supreme document to guide governance
Chapter 3 - Elections
Elections are governed by Title 1 of the Colorado Revised Statutes
Elections are nonpartisan and no candidate may run under a party
No elected councilmember can be recalled prior to 6-months tenure
Section 4 - Council and Mayor
Review this section after townhall in July
Section 5 - Council Procedure
Added "coordinated" in Section 5.1 to show that Broomfield coordinates their election with the Secretary of State.
Section 5.5c struck the term roll-call as a new system is coming on board which will show votes from individual members
Added Section 5.7 to define who can attend executive and study sessions and the limits of public interaction.

Important City Council Agenda Items - July 11th 2023:

Sales tax increase voted down...

As you saw in the last mailing, the city council will not be putting a sales tax increase on the ballot this November. Thanks to all who wrote letters and attended meetings and spoke against this.

If you watched or attended the meeting you would have seen that none of them addressed public comments concerning how inflation, 35-50% property tax increases, and their proposed sales tax have hurt you financially. One councilmember commented that he was "disappointed" in the results, and another one wants to make sure that you understand that it would only be $5 to $7 per month on a $100 purchase. Many of them commented that they just need to communicate with you better.

They think we are misinformed and it is our "perception" and not reality. Doesn't that insult your intelligence? And what if it's not a $100 purchase, what if it is a new car? A 0.75% increase on a $40,000 car is an extra $300 in taxes that you would pay.

It's not the little increase, it's the taxes, fees, and regulations that when combined that create the hardship. Food prices are still up 6.7%, electricity is still up 5.9%, rent of primary residence is still up 8.7%, motor vehicle repairs and maintenance is still up 13.5% , and motor vehicle insurance is up 17.1%.

They are trying to tell you that you just don't understand how much they need your money. You can do without, they cannot. Remember the Broomfield Enterprise has yet to cover this story, the city council didn't even try to understand how you are hurting right now, but Broomfield Taxpayer Matters gave you the sources, broke down some of the budget items, and provided the transparency that you as the source of their government funds needed.

1st reading on mandatory watering restrictions

The city council will have it's first reading on mandating water restrictions and increasing the fines for enforcement. Some of these changes are outlined in the tables below, but there are a lot more restrictions that you can look at in the staff memo if you click on the title above. These ordinances can be found in the Broomfield Municipal Code, Section 13-36.

A study session was held in May to provide guidance to the city council. There was a drought monitoring planning document which has a lot of good examples of various cities drought plans and Broomfield created it's own drought monitoring plan, shown at the end of the study session staff memo. This plan discusses the history of Broomfield Water, both potable and non-potable sources. Currently Broomfield can purchase up to 6500 acre-feet, with a minimal purchase of 4700 acre-feet of water from Denver. An acre-foot is the amount of water that can cover 1 acre at a depth of 1 foot. This is about 326,000 gallons. In a typical year, that amount of water can supply all the needs of two households, half of that being used at your home and half for the area you are living in.

Broomfield also has access to the Colorado Big-Thompson project which is fed by the Windy Gap Reservoir near Granby. This water ends up in Carter Lake and is then sent to our water treatment facility. Broomfield has access to 13,678 units of this water and currently owns 56 units of the Windy Gap supply. The Windy Gap supply is variable depending on the amount of moisture received, so the Chimney Hollow water reservoir broke ground recently and will provide a continuous 5600 acre-feet to Broomfield residents. You can read more about this at your leisure.

Until Chimney Hollow can provide that source of water, Broomfield has adopted this water plan. Although these past two months have provided excess water, we still have to mindful that we live in a semi-arid environment and average precipitation is around 15", this year we have seen around 20" of precipitation. Therefore the Drought Conditions I, II, and III outlined in the plan (see below) are triggered by a drought index. This index is the predicted supply over the predicted demand. These calculations are shown in the staff memo and depend on a number of factors. For all you nerds or people needing a good night's sleep, you can run through these calculations yourself.

Our government has not always made great decisions lately, so instead of forcing behavior on individuals, how about we let market forces innovate our way out of our current situation by creating water from the air?

More Prop HH confusion

Last month we brought you the story about how TABOR actually helps the taxpayer as put together by Douglas Bruce- the author of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). This month we want to expand on that by telling you how the language of a potential bill is summarized on the ballot or what is known as a "ballot title".

Citizen initiatives are sent to the title board where the language is drafted. Legislative initiatives don't have to go through the title board and that is why the language on the ballot is sometimes very confusing for legislative ballot initiatives. By the way, legislative initiatives are designated by letters, citizen initiatives are designated by numbers. When the repeal of Gallagher was put on the ballot in 2020, the language was "Without raising property tax rates" which voters mistakenly assumed meant that property taxes wouldn't go up. Did the legislators help clarify that? The possible implications were discussed in this article.

The legislators also introduced a number of bills during the interim which continued to hurt the residential taxpayer and thus as inflation increased, property taxes increased. And now, Governor Polis wants to make sure the taxpayer no longer has a voice in raising taxes. Proposition HH would either make you pay the current high property tax bill or pay the current property tax bill minus a small reduction and take away your TABOR protections once and for all.

Let's go through a quick calculation. Your $500,000 home from a couple of years ago now has property taxes (117.934 mill levy) of $3869 under SB22-238 which is our current tax law, and has an associated assessment rate of 6.77%.

But now, your property value has increased about 40%, so the property tax bill next year would be approximately $5,465 on a property value of $700,000 (a 40% increase). If you vote no on Proposition HH, then the current property tax would be the $5,465, an increase of almost $1,600 per year. If Proposition HH passes the assessment rate would go to 6.7% and you would be allowed to take $50,000 off the property value before applying the assessment rate. This is a calculation for residential properties. Thus, the $,5465 property tax bill would be reduced to $5136, which would still be a net increase of about $1,300 per year.

However, if Proposition HH passes, the legislature would no longer have to come to you to vote on any new tax increases. It's a win-win situation for them and your local city government, but a lose-lose for you. Doesn't really seem like they care about you. Again, write to your legislators, write to Governor Polis, and tell Broomfield city council to reduce the mill levy.

City Council Information

City and County Happenings

July 11, 2023

Regular Meeting - 6:00 p.m.

Agenda

PC - Petitions and Communications (4)

none

CA - Consent Agenda (7)

BSS - Board of Social Services (8)

none

BA - Council Business (11)

BURA - Broomfield Urban Renewal Authority (15)

Public Hearing - Resolution No. 2023-85-UR Approving The Park Business Plaza - Filing No. 1, Replat F Urban Renewal Site Plan - Item To Be Reviewed Concurrently With Item 11a

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July 18, 2023

Proposed Agenda

Study Session

2022 Audit & Review of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report by RubinBrown LLP, Independent Auditor for the City and County of Broomfield
Broomfield Housing Update incl DHS
OSPRT Plan Update: Open Lands 40% Goal and Status of the Open Space and Parks Sales and Use Tax Projections
Introduction Regarding Creation of an Open Space Zoning District and Modification to Open Lands and Public Facilities District