AURORA | While stimulus checks are on the way to millions of Americans across the country, Aurora City Council members may decide Monday to urge the federal government to send money to some undocumented immigrants.
The Aurora City Council is also expected to take up a bevy of other issues, including a marijuana sales tax increase and funding for an affordable housing project for the city’s homeless. The city council meets virtually using online meeting software. A livestream feed is available to the public through the city’s television website at AuroraTV.org.
The council will consider a resolution that asks for COVID-19 economic relief money be sent to those who have paid taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which is issued by the Internal Revenue Service to “help individuals comply with the U.S. tax laws, and to provide a means to efficiently process and account for tax returns and payments for those not eligible for Social Security numbers.”
Those numbers do not authorize work in the U.S.
People with ITINs were not included in a late-March incentive package President Donald Trump signed into law.
“Excluding them from assistance approved by Congress under the current COVID-19 emergency will affect those individuals, the businesses that they own, and the City of Aurora as well,” the resolution reads.
The resolution wouldn’t be legally binding, but rather a unified message from the city council. That has been a point of discourse within the council on previous resolutions. Some members have argued such efforts are futile.
Also regarding the coronavirus pandemic, the city council is set to approve an agreement with Adams and Arapahoe counties and the Tri-County Health for the emergency respite center, an unidentified hotel used for the region’s homeless population that may be recovering from COVID-19 or isolating after exposure to the virus.
The contract will allow each county with 18 rooms through the end of May, according to city documents. Both Adams and Arapahoe counties are to contribute $50,000 for the hotel lease, which totals $265,000 per month.
The local lawmakers are also slated to decide whether to grant a one-time payment of $260,000 to the Providence at the Heights project, an apartment complex aimed at housing Aurora’s former homeless, operated by the Second Chance Center.
The funding requested would pay for paving a parking lot, Wi-Fi security locks for each of the 49 units and landscaping on the property.
The city council may also decide to up the special sales tax rate for recreational marijuana from 4 percent to 5 percent, “with the idea that additional money could be used to fund the Court Surcharge programs including mental health that were reduced when Photo Red light was eliminated,” according to city documents.
The 1 percent rate increase would still keep Aurora sales tax rates below those of neighboring municipalities. It’s estimated the tax hike would increase annual revenue by about $1 million.