Opinion: Boulder’s 0.15% sales tax renewal survey seemed like a ‘push poll’

The Boulder city council is considering putting the current General Fund 0.15% sales tax, which expires at the end of 2024, on this November’s ballot for renewal. There seems to be a general agreement among council members that they need the money. However, a citizen group gathered enough signatures for a ballot measure dedicating this tax renewal to the arts.

The council authorized a survey to be done, allegedly to determine what level of support there is in the community for the renewal as undedicated funds. City staff hired a California firm to design and perform the polling. It was sent out in June via email and text. 

I received the text and was concerned that it was spam, because the text just said it was from “the City.” So, I asked, and city staff said it was legitimate. But before I got started, someone read me some of the questions. The questions made it sound like the survey was a “push poll,” an attempt to influence the voters, as I believe occurred some months ago on occupancy limits. And it proved, in my opinion, to be so.

Here’s some context: The City’s total 2023 Approved Budget is $515.4 million. The General Fund revenue sources are expected to raise $179.6 million of that. The balance is dedicated funds: utility fees, transportation and Open Space taxes, etc.

The current sales/use tax rate is 3.86%; the current 0.15% tax is less than 4% of that. The 0.15% tax is expected to raise around $6.73 million in 2023, around 1.3% of the total 2023 Budget. That is expected to increase to around $7.25 million in 2024.

Per the City’s website, “Over the past ten years, the operating budget has increased 43%. The operating budget is roughly two-thirds of the annual budget any given year. In that same time period, the capital budget has increased 184%. This is largely attributed to new revenue sources being approved by the voters that are dedicated to capital, namely the 2011 capital bond, and the 2014 and 2017 Community, Culture, and Safety Tax ballot.” Also, 2022 sales taxes increased by over 11% from the previous year.

Then there is the City’s 2023 library budget of $9.2 million (about 4.9% of the General Fund expenditures), which will go to zero over the next few years, as the Library District takes over. So those monies will then be available to the General Fund. Thus, even if the 0.15% expires, the City will still be several millions of dollars ahead.

Unfortunately, the poll provided none of this information. Poll participants were not provided any sense of scale or realistic impacts, any info on how small this 0.15% is in the big scheme of things, nor any numbers on how much revenues will likely increase irrespective of whether this tax extension passes or not.

To the contrary, the poll makes it seem like we are going to collapse into chaos without this extra money. It uses trigger words related to various important or critical services that the City provides, as if these were on the table to be cut, such as “emergency response,” “crime prevention,” “homeless,” “facility and infrastructure maintenance,” “youth access to recreation,” “public safety,” “health and safety,” etc. 

Then it provides the proposed ballot title, which includes this language, “… with the revenue from such tax extension and all earnings thereon be used to fund fire and emergency response services, public safety services, homelessness solutions …” as if the 0.15% is a significant funding source for these services, even though it is only a tiny fraction of the total, as I pointed out above.

Then it states, “This upcoming sales tax measure will simply extend the current sales tax for an additional 20 years, without raising any taxes.” But it fails to point out that the Library District is raising our taxes and at the same time decreasing the City’s costs.

The survey’s final straw stated, “Without renewing the local sales and use tax, the City will have to make cuts to essential city services, such as responding to crime reports, fire special rescue teams, emergency preparedness, homelessness solutions and services, and parks and recreation services.” Really? Will Boulder self-destruct if the citizens refuse to provide this tiny piece of extra funding?

The survey wasn’t all this bad. But if the council is going to spend up to $23,900 of our tax money, as this survey cost, they should make 100% sure that the survey is complete, unbiased and reflects reality, not their political desires. That’s their job. Otherwise, it’s just completely inappropriate tax-funded electioneering.

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