We urged a NO vote recently for Initiated Ordinance 305 on Denver’s municipal ballot. Dubbed the “eviction tax,” it’s a $12 million-a-year tax increase that will add even more to the price of renting in Denver – placing a $75 annual excise tax on nearly every rental apartment, townhome, mobile home and house in the city. It’s just what Denver doesn’t need – another rent hike. And the tax dollars it would collect would be used to hire lawyers for people facing eviction – a service Denver City Hall already provides. It’s an easy “no” vote.

Alas, it’s not the only bad idea facing voters on Denver’s local ballot this fall. Here are some others, all warranting a thumbs-down from the city’s voters. (A note on ballot nomenclature: referred measures are placed on the ballot by the City Council; initiated ordinances are petitioned onto the ballot by members of the general public.)

Referred Question 2I: Vote NO. It would raise Denver property taxes a total of $36 million a year for the Denver Public Library “in order to maintain existing services and meet the increased demand for additional services…” To say the least, it’s a nebulous proposal whose success would be difficult to measure. The more fundamental flaw in the proposal, though, is that it looks for money in the wrong place. Instead of asking taxpayers to dig even deeper into their pockets, the city should draw more library funding from what taxpayers already must fork over toward the city’s sprawling $1.49 billion budget. District 8 Councilman Chris Herndon – the only member to vote against referring the tax hike to voters – made the same point. We love libraries and books, including the old-fashioned kind with pages. But Herndon’s right.

Referred Question 2J and Question 2K: Vote NO on both. Two years ago, Denver voters ill-advisedly approved a 0.25% sales tax hike for climate action as well as another sales tax hike in the same amount to fund homeless services. We opposed both. We viewed the former as an outright boondoggle that does nothing but expand the city bureaucracy, and the latter as well-intended but naive – considering the Denver metro area already spends half a billion – yes, billion with a “b” – dollars a year in public and nonprofit largesse on homelessness. Under state constitutional taxing and spending limits, any amount collected by either sales tax in excess of population growth plus inflation must be refunded to taxpayers unless the say otherwise. These ballot questions ask them to vote to do just that; we urge voters to just say no. We didn’t like the original ballot proposals given the justifiable fear the revenue will vanish down a rabbit hole. There’s no need for any surplus tax revenue to disappear along with it.

Initiated Ordinance 306: Vote NO. This citizens initiative – served up on the ballot by the same political fringe that mandated “green roofs” on commercial structures – micromanages recycling and composting by apartments, condos and non-residential structures in the city. (Single-family residences are provided those services by City Hall.) The proposal is convoluted and accomplishes nothing of discernible benefit – unless its authors’ true aim is simply to make it even more expensive to rent an apartment, run a neighborhood eatery or, say, build a new home (construction debris also would be covered by the mandate). Because, y’know, the cost of living or doing business simply isn’t high enough in the Mile High City.

Initiated Ordinance 307: Vote NO. The proposal would assess property owners a fee to repair the city’s sidewalks. Right now, property owners are responsible for repairs to the stretch of sidewalk in front of their homes or businesses. There is also, however, already modest city funding to pay for sidewalk repairs on a piecemeal basis. Let’s stick with that approach for now.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board