BROOMFIELD — City and county officials will decide this month whether to potentially extend a home-construction tax seen as beneficial to schools and playgrounds but perhaps unfair to newcomers.
Since voters approved the Service Expansion Fee in 1995, it has generated more than $19.7 million to offset the costs of growth. It’s paid for city and school facilities as well as new streets, traffic signals and landscaping.
The fee requires builders of new houses and apartment complexes to pay $1 for every square foot of living space they construct. It is set to be eliminated by December 2010 unless voters decide to extend it in the November election.
The City Council must decide by the end of August whether to put the fee on the ballot. If approved by voters, the fee will bring in another $16 million by 2025, according to city estimates.
City officials say schools — pinched by shrinking budgets — have especially benefited from the tax. A new track at Broomfield High School and an elementary school playing field were paid for by the fee, officials say.
Both Boulder Valley and Adams 12 school districts say they want the fee plan renewed. But some on the City Council are reluctant to back it since the hardest hit are people building new homes in the community.
“I just find it too easy to impose a tax on somebody you don’t know yet,” said council member Randy Ahrens.
Some homeowners have had to pay the fee two or three times since 1995, as they have built new houses within the city, Ahrens said.
Planners in 1995 wanted to put a limit on the amount of time the city could levy such a tax, to allow residents to decide if it is justified, said Broomfield finance director Greg Demko.
“It’s something that has certainly helped offset the cost of growth,” Demko said. “But it might be time to find out what people think about it today.”
