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City Council Finance Committee <br />Meeting Minutes <br />02/18/19 <br />Page 2 of 9 <br />PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA <br />None. <br />RECREATION CENTER SALES AND USE TAX AND TABOR ISSUES <br />Mr. Nick Cotton -Baez from the City Attorney's Office reviewed a February 7, 2019 <br />memorandum from City Attorney Kathleen Kelly regarding certain TABOR litigation <br />with the Finance Committee Members. The memo outlined recent litigation <br />between El Paso County and Douglas Bruce, and the outcome by the Colorado <br />Court of Appeals, which is the latest activity, and which affirmed dismissal of Mr. <br />Bruce's case. <br />This case is of interest as it addresses certain de-brucing language used for ballot <br />titles in many municipalities, including the City of Louisville. At issue for Louisville <br />is the approximate $270,795 of excess Recreation Tax revenue received for the <br />first full fiscal year 2018, which was above the stated $575,000 on the ballot. The <br />City did not use terms "estimated" or "approximately" in the ballot language to <br />describe the recreation center tax increase amount, as El Paso County had done <br />in their case. <br />Mr. Cotton -Baez outlined the options contained in the memo, which include <br />refunding the excess tax and reducing the tax rate, or referring a ballot issue to <br />voters requesting to keep the excess tax and maintain the 0.15% tax rate. <br />Mr. Cotton -Baez concluded by saying that, since the Court of Appeals decision is <br />an unpublished opinion, the City would be prohibited from citing this case should <br />any legal action occur, and that even if the City sought to retain the excess tax <br />revenue, it would likely not hold up under judicial review based on the wording of <br />the City's ballot question. <br />City Manager Balser stated that she would be in favor of referring a ballot question <br />to retain the existing tax rate and either to keep or to refund the excess tax <br />collected in 2018. <br />Finance Committee Chairperson Maloney stated that there are not a lot of options <br />for City other than to take the issue back to voters, Member Lipton concurred. The <br />Finance Committee and staff discussed merits of proposing separate questions for <br />the rate and excess tax, or combining the issues. Attorney Cotton -Baez stated <br />that he could draft some different ballot questions for either the Finance Committee <br />or the full City Council to review. <br />The Finance Committee Members requested the drafts be provided to the Finance <br />Committee so that they could present and make recommendations to the full <br />3 <br />