The Greeley City Council is continuing to explore a potential 0.5% sales tax increase that could generate $12 million to $14 million in additional revenue to fund public safety, housing and homeless solutions or economic development.
On Tuesday, the city council reviewed recent polling by Aspect Strategic, which polled 500 Greeley residents. The poll was intended to target a diverse section of Greeley residents; however, 35% of respondents were from the 18-34 age range, a demographic Councilman Tommy Butler noted is less likely to vote in off-year elections.
The city commissioned the poll to gather insight on a potential ballot measure for a 0.5% sales tax increase that would fund public safety, housing and homelessness solutions or economic development. According to city staff, this tax increase would bring an estimated $12 million to $14 million, which would go a long way toward funding any of these three areas.
Most polled residents seemed to approve of these tax increases, with 58% indicating they’d support a tax for public safety and 52% indicating support for a tax for housing and homeless solutions. The poll, however, was phrased to ask if residents would support the measure if it were the only tax increase on the ballot.
This became a point of debate during the city council work session, as all council members believed that each of the three areas was important and had its own merit. Even the tax for economic development, which was the only option of the three to get more opposition than support from those surveyed, with 50% of residents opposing the increase.
“I don’t like taxes. I don’t think anyone likes them. But this is life-changing money for all three of these departments, and I’d like to see all three on the ballot,” Councilwoman Melissa McDonald said. “I know that’s big. But with what’s going on with the city and what we’re trying to accomplish, that’s just how I feel about it.”
When asked if they had to choose which measures they’d rather see on the ballot, 37% of respondents indicated they’d prefer the tax supporting housing solutions in Greeley over 28% who voted for public safety.
Additionally, when polled about the top issues facing Greeley, housing and homelessness were voted as the biggest issues with 18% of the vote when combined. This is also supported by another poll question in which 60% of respondents stated that affordable housing and homeless solutions programs needed more funding.
In an effort to avoid bringing two tax measures to the ballot, Councilman Johnny Olson and Butler suggested combining the two measures with the most support into one.
“I’d like to really dig in on what kind of public safety tax we’d do and combine it with a year-round shelter,” Butler said. “I think a year-round shelter would affect public safety.”
This idea gained significant momentum among city council members, prompting discussion about raising the sales tax to 0.75% instead of 0.5%. However, this idea quickly dissolved when city staff indicated it would be too difficult to get accurate poll results on that, in addition to the other measures, though Mayor John Gates still favored the combination.
“I do think there’s some merit to the discussion of combining those,” Gates said. “I will never send three (tax measures) to the residents. I might send two, and polling seems to indicate residents might support two of these, and the third one is on the fence.”
The city council has instructed staff to conduct further polls on the three measures and a proposed combined measure for public safety and housing. This poll will be conducted on June 16 and will be more in depth.
The city council will receive the results of the second poll on July 22 and decide how to proceed with referring a sales tax measure to the ballot. Then, in August, they vote on whether to finalize the tax measure for the ballot.
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