Lakewood – At 2 cents on the dollar, Lakewood has the lowest sales-tax rate in the metro area.
Supporters of 2A – a ballot issue that would increase the sales tax to 3 cents on the dollar – believe the city needs the additional revenue to maintain services after five years of budget cuts.
Opponents call the Nov. 1 ballot proposal a 50 percent tax increase and contend that current revenues are adequate but that the city has done a poor job of management.
Costs have outstripped revenues, city officials say, requiring them to cut $10.5 million over the next two years after trimming $13 million between 2001 and 2005.
Lakewood receives more than half of its $72 million budget from sales-and-use taxes. Those revenues – in part due to Internet sales – are down.
“There hasn’t been a tax increase in 34 years,” said George Valuck, executive director of the Alameda Gateway Community Association and spokesman for Yes on 2A. “The bottom line is the city can’t maintain quality services that residents have come to expect and enjoy. This tax initiative will set the course for Lakewood’s future.”
Bill Smith, spokesman for the Lakewood T Party, said the city has given Colorado Mills mall, Wal-Mart and the Belmar Center exemptions from collecting the proposed new sales tax and exemptions for a portion of the existing sales tax.
Campaign-finance filings on Oct. 11 draw a sharp distinction between the two camps.
The Lakewood T Party, a grassroots group of citizens, raised just less than $3,000, mostly from contributions at meetings, to fight the hike. The reported contributions include a $412.50 loan. The group spent all but $610 on yard signs, fliers, a parade float and a booth at the Jefferson County Republican Women’s chili supper.
In comparison, Vote Yes on 2A collected $43,636 and spent $25,835 on brochures, mailings and yard signs. Donors who gave $5,000 include FirstBank Holding Co.; Trans western Mile High of Houston; Carma Inc., which wants to build more than 1,200 houses on Green Mountain; Continuum Partners, which redeveloped Villa Italia mall into Belmar; and Sharon Kent Freeman Inc., a public-relations firm that represents Colorado Mills developer Greg Stevinson.
Also adding funds to fight for the tax hike were Mayor Steve Burkholder, $100; Lakewood City Council President Carol Kesselman, $100; council candidate Susan King, $50; and state Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, $50.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
