Wheat Ridge voters will see two questions on the ballot Nov. 7 asking them to allow the city to retain funds it collected last year and exempt the city from the revenue limit imposed by TABOR.
Question 2A asks voters to allow the city to retain $54,000 of excess TABOR funds for the Parks and Recreation Department. Question 2B asks voters to approve a blanket exemption from TABOR limits in the future.
TABOR, the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, sets limits on how much revenue governments can take in and requires voter approval to retain excess revenue.
Question 2B, the blanket exemption, doesn’t sit well with some voters. De-Brucing (as in Douglas Bruce, the early proponent of TABOR) for the future would take away the citizen’s right to approve the allocation of excess revenue, resident Louise Turner said.
Mayor Jerry DiTullio strongly supports the ballot measures. He voted for TABOR in 1992 because he wanted to be able to vote on all new taxes at the state level. The city charter already requires a vote of the people to increase taxes, DiTullio said.
The city’s allowable revenue growth dictated by TABOR has decreased significantly in the past few years, even though the cost of providing services such as police, parks and recreation and public works, has increased every year, DiTullio said. TABOR-imposed limitations are based on the state’s growth rate, not the city’s growth rate, he said.
TABOR makes it very difficult for the city to take advantages of surpluses to save for hard times, and it makes the budgeting process difficult, he said.
“If TABOR applied to families, they would not be able to invest or save in good times in order to avoid hardship in bad times,” DiTullio said. “Those having trouble making ends meet would not be allowed to find more work to increase their income. Workers would have to refuse merit raises above inflation and might even have to give back bonuses.”
The ballot measures would not impose any new taxes, and voters still would have to approve any future tax increases in accordance with the city charter, DiTullio said.
If voters do not approve the ballot measures, the city would have to refund about $1.70 to every citizen of Wheat Ridge. It would cost the city $10,000 just to write the checks, city council president Mike Stites said. TABOR has become outdated, he said.
Although Turner favors one-time TABOR votes, the total exemption makes some uneasy, she said.
“It simply removes a right that people have,” she said.
Some citizens are more accepting of TABOR exemptions at the local level because they benefit directly from the results, DiTullio said.
“They can see the potholes getting fixed, and the police station and the parks,” he said. “They see where their taxes go every day.”
Briana Hovendick is the Wheat Ridge Community editor. She can be reached at 303-279-5541, ext. 222.