File Poto by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | Despite last-minute community pushback over a portion of funding going to police, the Aurora city council will ask voters to raise taxes for public safety investments, as well as for transportation and city facility improvements.
On Monday, the council finalized three bond measure questions for the November ballot, asking voters for a sales tax increase to fund $264 million in transportation, public safety and city facility capital improvement projects. The ballot proposals would amount to a 0.325% sales tax increase, or three cents for every $10 in purchase.
For public safety, the bond question will ask for a .06% sales tax increase, or 0.6 cents per $10, for $52 million of public safety improvements, including upgrades to several fire stations, police facilities and the 911 call center, as well as building a new fire station.
During the council meeting, a handful of speakers opposed the public safety bond because of the $8.5 million in funding for police facilities and concerns about the future oversight of bond expenditures.
Auon’tai Anderson, an activist who is regularly publicly critical of the Aurora Police Department, said the city is asking voters to approve millions in funding “without clearly stating how much will go to police or precisely what will be built.”
“Aurora should not receive another blank check for policing,” Anderson said.
Though the city has been discussing the proposed bond questions for more than a month, Monday’s comments were the first time opposition to the public safety bond was voiced at a council meeting.
In response to the comments, the council discussed what guardrails would exist for revenue collected through the bond issue if it passes.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said if voters approve the question, the city is legally obligated to fund the projects listed in the ballot language. Schulte added that if the city collects more revenue than expected, it would be up to the council to decide how to spend that money.
“Those projects that were in the June 8 resolution that you all passed and they’re going to the voters that is tied to the vote,” he said. “But if we have excess, council’s always going to have the final say in any appropriation of that money.”
The city also plans to stand-up a bond oversight committee to ensure financial accountability and transparency for all three bond questions.
Ultimately, every council member except Councilmember Alli Jackson voted to move forward with putting the public safety bond on the ballot. Jackson had previously voted in support of the public safety bond.
The council unanimously supported the other two bond questions for transportation and facility improvements.
The transportation bond question will ask for voter approval for a 0.13% sales tax increase, or 1.3 cents on every $10, to fund $107.4 million in transportation projects, such as the construction of Gun Club Road, the replacement of the Peoria Street bridge and transportation improvements for the Aurora Reservoir.
The facilities bond question proposes a 0.13% sales tax increase to fund nearly $105 million in capital projects, like building a new library and recreation center in northeast Aurora and renovating the Aurora Center for Active Adults.
The proposals would fund a total of 65 projects across the three areas. Deputy City Manager Laura Perry said the projects listed in the bond questions were chosen to prioritize those with the greatest public benefit.
The projects were identified over a three-year process through the Build Up Aurora Infrastructure Task Force, which identified over $2 billion in infrastructure needs across the city. Through community engagement efforts and determining which projects are development ready, the task force categorized the projects into tiers, with tier one projects to be funded by the November bonds if approved.
Speakers at Monday’s meeting also strongly opposed some of the police projects listed in tier two and three, which are not yet funded, including investments in surveillance technology and a new police training center.
Dear Voters; we, the members of City Council have been profligate with your tax dollars, funding our pet projects and virtue signalling rather than addressing our fundamental obligations as a municipal government. We now find our hubris has caught up to us as the City fails into fundamental disrepair. We ask you to bail us out while making no promises we have learned our lesson and will not continue in our irresponsible spending. Sincerely, City Council.
Roger Waters of Pink Floyd made a disgustingly huge sum of money when he asked “Mother, should I trust the government?” But he did raise a valid question.
At Monday night’s council meeting I spoke in opposition to the three measures to raise the tax for a single reason. There is strategic opportunity to materially improve retail, dining and entertainment activity and thus the total tax collected without raising the rate. But this elected body consistently refuses to do so.
For nine years, CM Bergan has refused to even acknowledge that our retail economy is objectively among the weakest in Colorado — or that the primary reasons are actionable.
In my opinion, City Council violates a solemn trust when they insist a tax increase is needed -– as they just leave $45 million/year in additional tax revenue on the table. That would be the annual gain just coming up to the per capita average of Colorado cities on retail activity. Council could boost retail/dining activity by focusing on entertainment, regional draw and attracting leisure travelers arriving via DIA to boost the tax base up to average. But it’s just politically easier to gouge the residents with a higher tax rate -– as they tell us Aurora isn’t worthy of nice things like a Performing Arts Center even though we pay $8 to 9 million per year towards such facilities.
I’ll be voting NO. I’ll also be noodling options for a campaign in 2027. Ward VI vs. At-Large TBD.