Re: April 20 news story.
The Colorado legislature has now failed to put a sales tax on the ballot to deal with our transportation needs. Maybe they should take a whole new tack and require developers to pay for the highways, transit and schools their developments require, just like they do for water, sewer and parks, with tap/hookup/development fees.
Impact fees don’t raise housing prices or office rents, because these are set by the “market,” not by costs. Who will pay more is the developers: They make huge profits by selling access to roads and schools without paying to make the necessary improvements, leaving the burden on the rest of us, because the taxes their developments pay are a tiny fraction of the costs they impose. Itap time growth paid its own way.
And conveniently, development impact fees do not require TABOR elections, and their revenues can be exempt from TABOR revenue/expenditure limitations.
Steve Pomerance, Boulder
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