Greeley mayor discusses decisions on tax-extension ballot questions

Sep. 5--Greeley is still moving for now, but in order to keep doing so beyond 2022, the city will have to decide later to ask its voters to help that happen.

The Greeley city council voted Tuesday to present just one of two potential tax extensions to the voters on November's ballot, leaving the Keep Greeley Moving roads funding tax out of the 2020 options presented to voters but deciding to request instead only the extension of the 30-year-old Food Tax.

"Council voted 6-1 to not move Keep Greeley Moving forward this year," said Greeley mayor John Gates Friday in a phone conversation. "That has an extension of 2022, so we have another year to play with, and I'd anticipate it comes up next year. Even though our polling said to put both out, the council decided to just put the Food Tax extension on the ballot. That's signed, sealed, delivered."

Gates explained the Food Tax extension, which seeks voter approval to allow the city to continue taxing an additional 3% of grocery sales, was originally approved in 1990 and has been renewed every five years since, making this the seventh renewal, should it be approved. The Food Tax is the primary source of income for parks and recreation funding in the city, as well as public building maintenance and a number of other critical buckets contributing to quality of life.

Keep Greeley Moving is in its first iteration, meanwhile, having first passed in 2015 with a seven-year sunset.

"Folks are pretty willing to vote for (the Food Tax)," Gates said. "Keep Greeley Moving has made just as significant an impact. Like most communities going through tough times in 2008 and 2009, Greeley got so far behind on road maintenance, and the Food Tax alone couldn't have ever caught up. Keep Greeley Moving came about in 2015, bringing in about $14 million a year going strictly to road maintenance. That's still in play and on the books, and chances are we'll take a chance at (extending it) next year, but the majority of the council felt this wasn't the time due to the uncertainty with our economy and in our society in general right now."

The Food Tax, according to the city's website, brought in about $44.6 million in revenue, cumulatively, between 2014 and 2018. That money, the website displays, was spent as follows:

* Street maintenance (379 road mils, 700 miles of curb, gutter and sidewalks): $29.7 million

* Building maintenance (including public buildings like City Hall): $6.9 million

* Parks maintenance (including 1,738 acres of parks and open spaces): $5.7 million

* American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility: $1.8 million

* Traffic signal maintenance: $500,000.

The 3% grocery tax is the primary revenue source for these ongoing project categories. Of those, Gates is particularly proud of the city's parks.

"People say, and I hear it, Greeley has great parks," Gates said. "The reason we have great parks is the upkeep because of the Food Tax. Even though the Food Tax can't keep up with infrastructure, a lot goes to streets, too. Keep Greeley Moving, we need that for our streets, too, they're both essential. But we wanted to concentrate."

Keep Greeley Moving, a 0.65% sales tax on non-grocery purchases, is used exclusively for street-related improvements and repairs. $41.1 million has been invested in those needs in the city since 2015, the city's website indicates, with the majority going into nearly 30 miles of road overlay and into expansion on roads including 20th Street and 71st Avenue.

Gates said he thinks the city might receive its ballot question designation -- the number/letter combination that will represent the issue through the November election -- as soon as next week.

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The November general election will include quite a few ballot questions outside of Greeley's Food Tax extension. The state of Colorado is presenting 11 total ballot questions, ranging from voting laws to ecological decisions.

Amendment B: Repeal Property Tax Assessment Rates

Amendment B would amend the state constitution to repeal the Gallagher Amendment, which requires the property tax assessment rate on residential property decrease periodically to remain in a designated ratio with non-residential property assessment as it has since 1982. The "De-Gallagher" motion has been taken on by dozens of taxing districts across the state. This would do the same for state tax assessment.

Amendment C: Bingo Raffles Allow Paid Help and Repeal Five-year Minimum

Amendment C would amend the state constitution to change regulations restricting charitable gaming activities, allowing in part for bingo raffles to hire managers and operators of games that can be paid.

Amendment 76: Citizenship Qualification of Electors

Amendment 76 would amend the state constitution to require a voter in any election be a United States citizen. Notably, this is already a legal requirement, but it is not specifically in the state constitution.

Amendment 77: Local Voter Approval of Gaming Limits in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek

Amendment 77 would amend the state constitution and change the Colorado Revised Statutes concerning voter-approved changes in limited gaming and allow voters of Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek to approve gaming in their cities, also allowing a gaming tax revenue be used for support services to help students.

Proposition EE: Cigarette Tobacco and Nicotine Products Tax

Propsotion EE would impose a tax on nicotine liquids used in E-cigarettes and other vaping products that is equal to the state's tax on tobacco products.

Proposition 113: National Popular Vote

Proposition 113 would approve an act that would adopt an agreement with other states to support eliminating the use of the Electoral College to elect the President of the United States, replacing it with a national popular vote.

Proposition 114: Restoration of Grey Wolves

Proposition 114 would reintroduce grey wolves on designated lands in Colorado located west of the Continental Divide, and implement a plan to manage the animals, "prohibiting the commission from imposing any land, water, or resource use restrictions on private landowners to further the plan; and requiring the commission to fairly compensate owners for losses of livestock caused by gray wolves?"

Proposition 115: Prohibition on Late-Term Abortions

Proposition 115 would create a law prohibiting abortions of pregnancies of 22 weeks or later, making it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to perform or attempt a prohibited abortion, except when the abortion is immediately required to save the life of the pregnant woman.

Proposition 116: State Income Tax Rate Reduction

Proposition 116 would reduce the state income tax from 4.63% to 4.55%.

Proposition 117: Voter Approval Requirement for Creation of Certain Fee-Based Enterprises

Proposition 117 would create a law requiring statewide voter approval of the creation of fee-based enterprises that are exempt from the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, if the revenue from fees and surcharges of that enterprise is greater than $100 million over the first five fiscal years from its creation.

Proposition 118: Paid Family Leave and Medical Leave Insurance Program

Proposition 118 would create a paid family leave and medical leave program in Colorado.

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