(The Center Square) – The Colorado House Tuesday voted 53-10 to allow counties to use their tax revenue for workforce housing and housing tax credits.
Senate Bill 26-001, which previously passed in the Senate, allows boards of county commissioners to use revenue in their general funds or other funds for workforce housing, housing programs, multi-jurisdictional housing authorities or other housing authorities.
Under the bipartisan legislation, local governments could sell, lease or acquire property for development of affordable or workhouse housing and create a tax exemption for materials used for workforce housing projects. The bill also allows a governmental entity to transfer a middle-income housing tax credit to individuals or companies that don’t own an interest in the project.
The House version of the bill underwent amendments.
A legislative staff member told The Center Square Tuesday that the bill will go back to the Senate for consideration of the House version.
No appropriation is needed for the legislation, according to a report by the Legislative Council Staff.
“This bill provides a tool. It doesn’t provide a mandate. It does not require new taxes or fees be levied. The middle-income tax credit exists. It’s funded,” said Rep. Chris Richardson, R-Elbert County, one of SB 26-001’s sponsors, speaking to the House during the floor session.
“This bill allows local decision making, to direct those monies in a way that can be used to allow projects,” said Richardson, standing in front of the speaker’s podium.
Speaker Pro Tempore Andrew Boesenecker, D-Fort Collins, another sponsor of the bill, said the measure would create more flexibility for local governments to use existing tools and unlocks “more resources to build housing that Coloradans can actually afford.”
But Rep. Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs, questioned the need for SB 26-001.
“We have high vacancies on El Paso County and Denver. Yet we’re pushing for more development, for more development that is controlled by bureaucrats from the Capitol in Denver, who have no accountability in the communities in which they’re meddling,” DeGraaf said, addressing lawmakers from in front of the speaker’s podium.
“We don’t need that much more housing,” DeGraaf said. He noted the state is seeing a decrease in its population because of a low birth rate.
Richardson countered that housing solutions are not “one size fit all.”
“Denver may be awash in available housing, maybe because businesses have left and folks don’t have to live there,” Richardson told DeGraaf and other lawmakers. “But there are areas in this state where there are significant shortfalls in housing.”
The bill was also sponsored by Sens. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, and Jeff Bridges, D-Arapahoe County.
