Pitkin Property Tax Measure to Benefit Affordable Housing on November Ballot

A Pitkin County property tax question on the November ballot is aimed at creating housing with partners in the valley, county officials told the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority during a board meeting in early September.

If approved, the ballot question would institute a new property tax of 1.5 mills for no longer than 25 years, amounting to a $121 increase per $1 million of residential property value. The tax would generate a roughly $8.5 million fund that Ashley Perl, community resiliency director for the county, told the APCHA Board the county could use for partnering on housing projects in the valley, creating deed restrictions, building new affordable housing projects, helping stock existing housing capital reserve funds and more.

APCHA Board Vice Chair John Ward asked Perl and APCHA board member Francie Jacober (who also sits on the Pitkin County board of commissioners, for which she is running for reelection) what the meat of the $8.5 million would go toward, especially with outstanding infrastructure needs at existing properties like the Phillips Mobile Home Park site.

Ward suggested starting a partnership to fund infrastructure at the mobile home site potentially with some of the tax dollars. Pitkin County purchased the mobile home site six years ago for $6.5 million to prevent displacing employees from their housing at a site that could have been purchased and used to build multi-million-dollar homes. The county board agreed to add 35 units to the site and look for construction partners in January, but infrastructure upgrades alone will cost over $10 million, Perl said during the APCHA meeting.

Jacober did not leave the mobile home site out of the conversation as a way to use some of the funds, but emphasized that it was still up in the air where tax dollars would go if voters approved the mill levy, and the county was adamant on primarily using the funds to work with community partners, like APCHA.

APCHA Chair Carson Schmitz said the board would need to be creative in how it used any funds the county might provide the housing authority if the tax increase passed.

“If this passes, and obviously I hope it does, I mean there’s going to be … a tremendous demand for these funds,” Schmitz said. “I think that, on the capital reserve piece, that’s where we have to try and get creative to maximize the efficiency of any dollars that we request.”

State News: CAR Publishes 2024 Legislative Summary

There are 100 legislators comprised of 35 state Senators and 65 state Representatives at our State Capitol who make policy decisions that impact REALTORS®, their businesses, housing, and the real estate industry. None of these 100 legislators are REALTORS® or hold current real estate licenses.

It’s critical that legislators know and hear collectively from our professionals and practitioners who work in real estate about the effects, both intended and unintended, of proposed policies. Our political power comes from 26,000 REALTORS® working together as part of Colorado’s largest professional trade association.

To that end, the Colorado Association of REALTORS® (CAR) has the Legislative Policy Committee (LPC) comprised of at least 35 REALTORS® but upwards of 60 members who are ap- pointed annually by CAR leadership and engaged in reviewing legislation and adopting formal CAR positions on them. These positions include:

• Support – a good bill in alignment with our strategic framework and policy statements.
• Oppose – a bill that needs to be defeated, and there is a pathway to defeat it, based on our strategic framework and policy statements.
• Amend – a bill needs changes, or amendments, for it to be workable or improved upon. If a bill is harmful but there is not a path to defeat it, amending it to reduce impact is critical.
• Monitor – the bill does not require CAR to actively en- gage. It may not harm REALTORS®, but we monitor it to make sure no amendments may be added that could cause harm to REALTORS® or the real estate industry.

Here’s a summary of some of the legislative highlights:

SB 33 – Defeated - Lodging Property Tax Treatment (Short-Term Rentals)

CAR led efforts to defeat this attempt to reclassify non-primary residences rented as a short-term rental (STR) more than 90 days per year as commercial lodging property, subjecting them to the higher assessment rate of 27.9%. The bill would have quadrupled property taxes on STRs, balloon lodging assessments by over $6 billion (PTY 2026), curtail local tourism-based economies, and complicate the housing market by imposing commercial taxes on residential properties.

HB 1014 – Defeated - Deceptive Trade Practice Significant Impact Standard

CAR again led efforts to defeat this bill that would have lowered the “public impact” standard to a single person for a claim to qualify as an unfair or deceptive trade practice claim under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (CCPA). Current law requires a significant number of consumers to be harmed before a claim could be considered. By allowing a single claimant to pursue a CCPA claim, impact on REALTORS® could be very punitive, including treble damages and attorney fees, which your errors and omissions insurance policy does not cover.

HB 1300- Defeated - Home Sale Wildfire Mitigation Requirements

CAR defeated this bill mandating a wildfire mitigation certification at point-of-sale for existing residences in 12 specific counties. This bill was amended to allow any of the 64 counties to require a mitigation certification. CAR actively opposed HB1300 because it would not guarantee homeowners insurance for a property, could delay the sale of a property for months waiting for mitigation or certification, and drive up the cost of housing with sellers adding the cost of mitigation for buyers.

HB 1024 – Passed - Extend Outreach Campaigns Wildfire Risk Mitigation

The bill provides the Colorado State Forest Service more bandwidth to educate residents in the wildland- urban interface about wildfire risks and mitigation. The timeline to educate residents was extended for an additional three years. CAR supported this bill because property owners should be given the best chance to reduce the threat of wildfire and be part of the ongoing solution to ensure insurance coverage and contain costs.

HB 1230 – Defeated - Protections for Real Property Owners

Despite the bill title, HB1230 would have significantly increased the costs and frequency of litigation on single-family construction. Colorado already has a high-risk of litigation for condos, and this would have put single-family construction in the same legal environment as condo construction, reducing the number of single-family houses being built. This potential reduction in housing stock is cause for concern as it could impact the state’s availability and affordability of single-family homes. CAR, in partnership with other organizations, was able to defeat this bill.

Federal News: NAR Comments on Treasury's Proposed Regulation

NAR recently submitted a comment letter to the Treasury Department in response to the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States’ (CFIUS’s) proposed rule expanding its jurisdiction and review of real estate transactions near military installations. The proposed rule would expand the range of CFIUS’s jurisdiction review from one mile to one hundred miles of various military installations across 30 states.

NAR submitted a letter acknowledging the national security risks that are prevalent, while also raising for CFIUS’s consideration the fair housing, property rights, and economic concerns that are also relevant. This proposed rule when finalized could also serve to address various state laws seeking to regulate foreign ownership. NAR remains engaged on this issue and will continue to provide updates.

The letter can be found here: https://narfocus.com/file/view/2024-08-19-nar-letter-to-treasury-on-definition-of-military-installations