AURORA | In a surprisingly less contentious city council meeting, Aurora council members did an about face and ended a weeks-long debate on repealing the city’s occupational privilege tax or “head tax.”
Councilmember Françoise Bergan’s motion to table the repeal ordinance indefinitely passed 5-3, with Councilmembers Alison Coombs, Curtis Gardner and Crystal Murillo opposed.
“I believe in principle,” Councilmember Stephanie Hancock said. “The occupational tax was repealed, and the council voted on it, and I don’t believe we should go back on our promises.”
The long debate has centered around Aurora’s occupational tax, which requires employees and their employers to each pay $2 per month per employee. The tax was initially intended to help fund city services for workers who might not contribute through other taxes. It generates an estimated $5.9 million annually.
Earlier this year, city lawmakers voted to repeal the tax, citing its financial and administrative burden, particularly on small businesses. The tax was supposed to end in January 2025. However, concerns about losing nearly $6 million in annual revenue have since reignited debate over the decision.
Bergan recently proposed keeping the tax indefinitely to address pressing public safety needs. She said that Aurora’s rapid growth, particularly in the northeast and southeast, requires the construction of two new fire stations. Bergan suggested using the tax revenue to fund these projects and later support the city’s broader public safety budget.
In response, Councilmember Dustin Zvonek introduced a compromise to delay the repeal until June 2025. He also proposed a resolution to explore alternative funding methods for the fire stations, such as budget cuts or replacing the tax with a new revenue source.
“It’s extremely disappointing that we’re in this situation of not having been able to decide that we need to have these $6 million in our budget,” said Coombs. “It’s disappointing that we are continuing to decide that this is what’s best for our city when we know that we are consistently under budgetary constraints.”
Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky opposed bringing the tax back and said in multiple meetings she would find funding for the fire stations and additional public safety funding elsewhere.
Neither she nor any other council member offered alternative funding or cuts for funds to build and operate the fire stations.
The City needs to figure out how to be fiscally responsible (something most government entities will never figure out) and they can have a budget that will pay for the essentials without the need for the head tax or an increase on taxes elsewhere. Time to banish the head tax in perpetuity!
Once again, nothing concrete is proposed to plug the $6MM hole in the budget. This is Jurinski’s baby and it’s up to her to find alternatives. I’m certain that fire safety, badly underfunded should not be cut. Get your act together, Jurinski!
When we voted down a property tax for Aurora in a recent election (sorry don’t which year; not long ago), and given the city by charter (whatever) is mandated to running on a balanced budget, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to repeal an existing tax that’s in place ($2/month is paltry).