Commerce City Council – Long Range Financial Retreat

Monday, June 13, 2011, the Commerce City council held a special meeting regarding long range financial planning. The exercise for the meeting was basically city council members identifying certain long range projects, if there was money to fund the projects, but there isn’t. So city staff asked city council to go ahead and identify projects they would like to see funded in the future irregardless of the city’s current financial status.

The rest of the retreat was used to identify “new” sources of revenue for the city.

First up was the top fee options that the council would like the staff to work on.
Since “fees” are not voted on by the citizens but rather voted on by the city council only, this would be the fastest way to raise revenue.

The list of proposed fees is as follows:
Increase Impact Fees
Toll on Tower Road
Park Road Improvement Fee
Parking Fee - Dedicate to Tower (Road)
Advertising on City Vehicles
Graffiti Removal Fee
Additional Cell Tower
Increase Road Impact Fee

The next options to raise revenue would involve going to the voters in November 2011 and increasing taxes.

The list of proposed taxes is as follows:
Sales Tax Increase (which is most likely going to be put on this year’s ballot)
Property Tax Increase
Sales Tax on Food
Head Tax
Form New GID
Form Recreation District
Admission (Seat) Tax
Carbon Base Fuel Tax
Increase Motel Tax
Medical Marijuana Tax

To view the entire video of the retreat yourself, go to the city’s website.
You can find the link at www.gatewaynews.org, go to GOVERNMENT, link is on the right side of the page as you scroll down.