Steve Pomerance

I’ve spent weeks trying to decipher the effects of the Proposition HH ballot measure. I’ve read the state Blue Book, much of the legislation and multiple articles (CPR.org has one of the best). Here are my observations to date, though the principles underlying its structure elude me. The stimulus for Prop HH was the rapid increase in property taxes in high-demand areas over the last few years. This bump was mostly due to the shift to remote work stimulated by the pandemic, resulting in people moving to desirable locations, like Colorado’s Front Range and resort areas, thus pushing real estate prices up rapidly. For context, per WalletHub.com, 2019 (pre-pandemic) Colorado was ranked the 11th best state for low-income people in tax burden as a percentage of income, 10th best for middle-income people and 14th best for high-income. Apparently, Colorado was not overtaxing people. In 2023, for overall tax burden, Colorado ranked 24th best state of 50. So, our governments’ taxes are now in th...

Sometimes it’s worth digging into past situations so that we can learn and avoid repetitions. For whatever reason, in the last few weeks several caught my eye. Many of you know of the 311 Mapleton project that replaced the old Memorial Hospital buildings with senior housing and facilities and is now under construction. The original “promise” by the developer, in exchange for building only eight permanently affordable units on the huge 311 site, was to develop the Fruehauf property on 33rd Street with over 100 units of affordable housing. There was a big controversy over a possible conflict of interest that one council member had in voting for this, and it barely was passed by the council on a 5-4 vote.  Somehow this commitment regarding the Fruehauf property was never properly documented. As a result, the city was not going to get any affordable units other than what was on the 311 site. But now, according to Boulder staff, the developer has finally decided to give the undeveloped ...