Mayor Mike Johnston’s proposal to raise the sales tax for affordable housing seemed half-baked at best when it was unveiled a month ago. Many details seemed to still be in the planning stages at the time, and overall it was unclear how exactly the $100 million the half-cent tax is expected to raise over 10 years would help fund 20,000 affordable housing units.
The Denver City Council is scheduled to vote today on whether to put the proposal on the municipal ballot this fall. The tax increase still seems ill-conceived and ill-timed. And even some council members — as well as a former Denver mayor — agree, as The Gazette reported last week.
This reinforces our editorial board’s view that the mayor’s proposal is not yet ready for prime time. We urge the council not to put it to voters.
And it comes at a particularly bad time – because voters must also approve a 0.35 percent sales tax increase in the same vote to save Denver Health. The hospital had to record an additional $10 million worth of “free care” last year because thousands of patients from Latin America who had entered the United States illegally and ended up in Denver were hospitalized.
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This measure should not be put to a vote either. We oppose it, not because the city’s standard hospital does not need the money to care for those in need, but because the Johnston administration’s reckless asylum policy toward illegal immigration is to blame for the hospital’s financial difficulties. And yet the mayor wants to once again put the bill on taxpayers.
This is another argument for eliminating the affordable housing tax proposed by the mayor.
When the council provisionally voted last week to bring forward the tax increase to today’s final vote, members expressed strong concerns.
“I’m really uncomfortable with the rushed nature of this,” 5th District Councilmember Amanda Sawyer told her fellow council members before the action last week. “I was really hoping to vote yes, but the resolution is not ready to go before the voters yet.”
Added to this is the regressive nature of any increase in sales tax, which hits people with the most modest incomes the hardest.
As noted in last week’s Gazette report, 10th District Councilman Chris Hinds wondered how the city could claim to help the needy with a tax that “hits those who need (help) the most.”
And veteran council member Stacie Gilmore said the public had not had enough opportunity to voice their opinions and ask questions.
“With the largest sales tax increase in Denver’s history, we were able to get all the voters through in just over half an hour,” Gilmore said. “If voters had known what we were doing, we would have needed at least an hour of public hearings to hear from everyone affected. … There’s just no time for adequate public outreach.”
Meanwhile, political titan and former mayor Wellington Webb said last week the timing worried him.
“I was surprised that Mayor Johnston, who is struggling with many issues, especially related to homelessness, did not delay passing any of these measures until the spring,” Webb said.
Wise words for the mayor and city council. They should take the proposal off the table and think about it again.
Editorial staff of the Denver Gazette
