Colorado has some of the world’s most productive farmlands. Colorado’s farmers help feed the nation, provide wildlife habitat and protect the environment, and support Colorado’s rural communities.
Agricultural producers provide food, fiber and feed to the market, generating economic activity in the range of $20 billion every year for Colorado’s economy. According to a 2006 survey done by Colorado State University, almost three-quarters of Coloradans believe that agriculture is important to the quality of life in Colorado.
Yet agriculture faces many challenges in Colorado. Colorado citizens probably know about some of these challenges – a growing population, greater competition for land and water, an aging farming population and a growing disconnection between farmers and consumers. But we’d bet most Coloradans are unaware that the taxes they pay to their local governments are being used to turn productive farmlands into subdivisions and shopping centers.
Urban renewal laws were enacted in Colorado over a quarter century ago to address the “serious and growing menace” of “slum and blighted areas.” These laws were passed to protect Colorado citizens from “areas which are focal centers of disease, promote juvenile delinquency, and consume an excessive proportion of its revenues.”
The General Assembly authorized these urban renewal authorities to use taxes paid by citizens to cities, counties, school districts, water districts, and fire districts to pay for the costs of rehabilitating slum and blighted urban areas. That makes good sense.
We think urban renewal is a good and important tool when used properly to rehabilitate true slum and blighted areas. Taxpayer funding used to encourage the redevelopment of a polluted old factory site in a city is a good use of taxpayer money.
What we don’t understand is how farmlands qualify as “focal centers of disease, promote juvenile delinquency, or consume an excessive proportion of revenues.” We don’t understand how urban renewal authorities and developers can say they are rehabilitating a slum or blighted area when they turn a productive wheat field into a big box shopping center or a housing development. Yet this has been happening for decades in Colorado destroying farmlands and open spaces across the state.
We don’t think that the legislators we elected meant to allow this to happen. We also don’t think the average, fair-minded citizen would look at a productive wheat field or dairy farm and see a slum or blighted area in need of public dollars to assist in its rehabilitation. Or feel good about his or her tax dollars being used to destroy Colorado’s farmlands.
That’s why we strongly support House Bill 1107 and are working hard as part of a coalition of cities, counties, and agricultural, fiscal and conservation organizations to pass the bill. HB 1107 would curtail these abuses on farmlands and ensure that the use of taxpayer dollars under the Urban Renewal Law is as it was intended: for projects that are truly urban, and truly renewal. It will also help to protect Colorado’s farm and ranchlands and preserve our rural heritage.
Troy Bredenkamp is executive vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, and Elise Jones is executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
