AURORA | City lawmakers agreed Monday to a compromise that postpones repealing the city’s employment tax while officials search for funding for two new fire stations on Aurora’s eastern border.
On an 8-1 vote, city lawmakers agreed to postpone the imminent repeal of Aurora’s Occupation Privilege Tax until June 1, 2025. The pact came after two council members asked to retain the tax to pay for needed fire stations in Aurora Highlands and Southshore/Blackstone communities.
The tax was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2024.
The employee tax, introduced in 1986, requires both employees and their employers in Aurora pay $2 per month, per employee. The tax was designed to help cover the cost of city services for workers who may not contribute through other taxes. The city estimates to collect about $5.9 million annually from the tax.
Councilmember Françoise Bergan sponsored the postponement, saying that expansive growth in the city’s northeast and southeast areas warrant new fire stations as a matter of public safety. Earlier in the year, Aurora lawmakers agreed to repeal the $2 tax, saying that the tax is a bookkeeping and financial burden, especially on small businesses.
Bergan wanted to keep the tax indefinitely, using the proceeds to fund, first, the two additional fire stations, and, after that, direct the proceeds into the city’s public safety budget.
At the time lawmakers agreed to repeal the tax, some lawmakers raised concerns about how the city would get by with almost $6 million a year in fewer taxes.
Councimember Dustin Zvonek proposed a compromise to delay the repeal until June, as well as a companion resolution to explore options for funding the two new fire stations. Those options could include new budget cuts, and potentially replacing or modifying the employee tax with a new levy or revenue source.
Zvonek suggested replacing the current employee tax with a flat-fee version of the occupational privilege tax, to make it easier for small businesses to track and pay it.
Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who sponsored the measure repealing the $2 tax earlier this year, said she is concerned about confusing businesses, expecting the tax to expire by January. She emphasized the need to update businesses on the new June 1 date quickly.
**well well well
The thing was, Jurinsky decided “she” wanted the tax gone, which would have been fine, HOWEVER, the rules say to do that “she” would need to come up with someway to replace those funds. She didn’t. She hasn’t. She has no idea. She should resign.
Jurinski is vacuous! She’s taking the cue from her dear leader, the fascist orange monster. She simply throws out an idea without thinking about the consequences. When someone decides it’s a good idea to do away with a large funding mechanism, it behooves them to come up with an alternative. Instead of blowing up the airwaves with lies about Venezuelan immigrants, she should have come up with an alternative, but that requires thinking! Not sure that’s her specialty!
If only our City Council would stop and fully acknowledge that Aurora’s retail tax base is chronically in the toilet and that the City indeed has options to address it in a very meaningful way.
Denver’s used the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District to economically sodomize Aurora for about 35 years and these 11 keep their heads firmly planted in the sand. We subsidize Denver’s cultural gluttony to the tune of $ 8 million/year and our City Council remains silent.
NO POLITICAL COURAGE WHATSOEVER. NONE.
If you want a good laugh, watch last Monday’s study session on the city website and witness the woman-child Jurinsky go completely off the rails in a meandering rant about how she was left out of the loop, when it’s clear she never stepped up to offer a way to fill the gaping budget hole she created. Even when she didn’t have the floor, one could hear her incessant chirping off-screen. What an embarrassment. Lawson seemed lost. Coffman shouldn’t get off scot-free, either, for his backing. Council Member Bergan was the adult in the room (as is often the case) laying out the need and calling Jurinsky on the carpet for her constant histrionics.
A $2.00head tax on every Man,Woan, and child who works in Aurora has been going on for decades. And some buisnesses do too, sometimes they are excempted from taxes if they bring or keep thier buisness in Aurora. It’s called the occupation privalege tax, and they say they need it to build Firehouses and infrastruture for the new commuities eing built on Northeast and Southeast Aurora. Well I don’t have the privalege to the occupation of living in these “new”areas. SobI would suggest the city add it into the new residents of Aurora’s property taxes instead of the working stiffs! After all it’s thier houses who need fireman, the established housing units already paid for thiers. Just sayin