When Is a Fee Not a Fee?
1st May 2023
The bill also includes more funding for “affordable housing.” Some of that funding is supposed to come from a “fee” on new housing, thus making that housing (and all housing that competes with it) more expensive. But how is this a fee and not a tax?
Under Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), a constitutional amendment, the state can’t increase taxes without voter approval. But it can increase fees, so the legislature is redefining many taxes as fees so they can raise them without having to go to the voters.