Posted on 09/05/2024 4:47:36 PM PDT by Twotone
As Colorado lawmakers debate over how to confront rapidly increasing housing costs, more than a dozen city and town councils on the Western Slope have voted to support allowing local taxes on vacant homes and short-term rentals.
The concepts, pitched by the Colorado Association of Ski Towns, or CAST, would have to be passed by the Colorado legislature and approved by local voters before they could take effect anywhere.
“The lack of available and attainable housing for employees in Colorado mountain resort communities has reached a crisis level,” CAST wrote in the legislative policy statement approved by the towns. “The CAST Housing Task Force supports targeted legislation to provide increased financial resources for Colorado mountain communities to address housing needs.”
The legislative proposals from CAST also include an idea to allow more local governments to impose real estate transfer fees.
The proposals are the latest ideas in an ongoing debate over how the state should handle growing property taxes and a dearth of housing options. State lawmakers, who recently met for a special session on property taxes, have recently considered bills that would have taxed secondary homes and short-term rentals differently, but no bills with those concepts have been approved. The ideas have been met with significant pushback from assessors, companies like VRBO and AirBnb, and second-home owners.
State lawmakers have also attempted in recent years to find ways to blunt rising housing costs, but mountain towns have largely been carved out of the policies approved so far.
Town or city councils in Avon, Basalt, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Estes Park, Frisco, Glenwood Springs, Minturn, Mountain Village, Ouray, Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs and Winter Park have all voted to support the latest concepts proposed by CAST.
An empty home tax could be either in the form of an excise tax based on a home’s square footage or a flat amount per home, or part of property taxes based on the home’s value. Local governments would also be able to define whether things like secondary homes or short-term rentals are included in “empty homes,” according to CAST.
Residential vacancy rates are above 40% in some Colorado mountain towns, according to CAST.
CAST hopes a vacancy tax would incentivize homeowners to rent to full-time residents and disincentivize the purchase of homes solely as investments. Revenue from such taxes would fund local affordable and workforce housing.
The advocacy organization also wants the legislature to expressly allow local governments to ask voters to approve short-term rental taxes.
While some municipalities, which have voted to be considered “home-rule,” are already able to impose short-term rental taxes, others aren’t.
Another policy idea included in CAST’s statement approved by the towns would allow municipalities and counties to adopt fees on the transfer of real estate, with the revenue to fund local affordable and workforce housing. These fees are currently disallowed under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, a constitutional amendment passed by Colorado voters in 1992 that restricts government growth and requires voter approval for all tax increases.
A dozen Colorado towns imposed the fees before TABOR passed, making them exempt from the rule. The towns are Aspen, Avon, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Frisco, Gypsum, Minturn, Ophir, Snowmass Village, Telluride, Vail, and Winter Park.
The taxes, which so far range from 1% to 3%, can produce millions of dollars in revenue per year for the towns. According to 2021 data from CAST, Aspen made nearly $32 million from its 1.5% tax on real estate transfers. Vail collected $10.4 million and Winter Park collected $2.3 million.
CAST argues that other fees, including Denver’s fee on plastic bags, have been permitted under TABOR.
The policy ideas are still in the early stages. The next legislative session will begin in January.
Out of county owners should be taxed higher.
That might just bring the cost of living for the locals in those areas down.
empty houses are great for property and school taxes. if workers cant afford it... leave.
Fill them with illegal alien Venezuelan gangs. Their complicit NGO's can pay the taxes. Problem solved.
Will Colo. ever run out of Opium [OPM]?
I don’t know how they can charge extra for a vacant house. With no one living in the house, no one is using the roads, the schools, the police force, etc. Utilities still charge a monthly fee even when no one is using any gas or electric.
Short term rentals provide another entire set of problems. I would not want to live in a neighborhood where people are coming and going every week with the possibility of noisy parties, etc, in normally quiet places.
Hey I got an idea. How about these towns allocate some land to and ease restrictions on developers so they can build housing that local workers can afford?
taxation without representation...
I think I’ve seen this movie. When the commies took over in Dr. Zhivago, the “affordable housing committee” (my term) divided Yuri’s family’s fancy townhouse into who knows how many apartments and assigned them to the poor. I’m sure Colorado will apply similar “incentives” to get property owners to “cooperate.”
Colorado, get your balalaikas tuned up, the wonders of socialism are heading your way.
“That might just bring the cost of living for the locals in those areas down.”
Rent $30/month
If you invert the 30% housing formula, workers should get paid $100/month.
The highest cost for local communities is education.
Out of town owner = no kids = zero education cost
In town worker = kids = high education cost.
It is a good thing that math is racist these days.
:-)
My house sat vacant for 16 years before I needed it.
I am going to be bold and say that the housing shortage is the result of government interference in the first place. Otherwise, the market would have adjusted to equalize supply and demand.
Exactly why should the Rich Family pay $8 million for a place if there is an ‘affordable’ housing unit going for $310,000?
Hire live-in maids and cooks for the season. They can follow their employers from Palm Beach and Newport.
I really like this one: It is a good thing that math is racist these days.
Tose who have no local representation in “Our Democracy”?
Renters have the possible option of living anywhere in the USA where they can post the rental deposit and do the work available.
The logical choice should be where their labor profit=wages-rent-taxes is highest.
Why would anyone live in Utica, NY if they could live in Beverly Hills?
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