Denver Post: Should Denver guests pay an extra 1% tax to help with convention center project?
The Denver City Council on Monday approved plans that could lead to guests of large and midsize hotels ponying up an extra 1 percent tax to help pay for the Colorado Convention Center’s rooftop expansion project.
In a Nov. 7 special election, representatives of hotels in the city with at least 50 rooms — 116 in all — likely will vote on that tax as their planned contribution to a $233 million city project with significant cost gaps. The new tax is expected to generate $8.7 million in the first year, and $3.8 million each year would go to a multipronged plan to fill those gaps; the rest would supplement marketing efforts and maintenance projects.
For guests, the effective tax on hotel stays at those hotels would be 15.75 percent.
The council measure, approved 10-0 after a brief public hearing, creates a new citywide Tourism Improvement District that covers any hotel meeting the 50-room threshold. Owners of 51 percent of those hotels earlier signed a petition to initiate the district and pursue the tax, an effort organized by the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association and Visit Denver.
The Gazette editorial: Cut Medicaid and pay our Colorado teachers what they deserve
A teacher shortage. It’s the new Colorado policy crisis. Just like our crumbling roads, it provides a glaring sign of Colorado’s feckless leadership in state government.
As teachers flee to Wyoming and other nearby states for higher salaries and lower living costs, experts insist we have no simple solution.
A Gazette story by education writer Debbie Kelley spelled out the dilemma under the headline: “No ‘magic bullet’ for solving Colorado’s teacher shortage, education officials say.”
We have a roaring economy, largely because our natural assets attract tourists, residents and glitzy new businesses from around the globe.
Nature left public education to the political class, which will not lead by prioritizing expenses and making difficult decisions. Instead, our politicians act like victims of circumstance. Even educators have bought their song and dance.
ABC 7: Denver City Council passes controversial immigration protection ordinance
The Denver City Council unanimously approved a controversial ordinance that largely sets into law what the city has already been doing in regards to how it handles immigration enforcement.
The Denver Public Safety Enforcement Priorities Act passed in a 10 to 0 vote during Monday night’s meeting after more than 30 people spoke in favor of the ordinance during the public comment period.
The ordinance prohibits city employees from collecting information on people’s immigration status and the sharing of that information for the purpose of federal immigration enforcement.
“People should feel free to drive a car to work and to go to school and not be worried about ICE working with their police officers to deport them,” said Corrine Rivera-Fowler, an immigrant rights advocate with Padres Y Jovenes Unidos.
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