Centennial will ask voters in November to exempt the city from having to refund excess revenue it takes in as required by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

TABOR requires local governments to send out refunds to its taxpayers when revenues exceed a certain amount. The intent of the law is to limit the growth of government revenues.

Centennial voters approved an exemption for the city in 2006 for 65 percent of its revenue and the remaining 35 percent temporarily until the end of 2013.

Centennial City Attorney Bob Widner said that 35 percent is made up of fees and taxes, such as the open-space tax, franchise fees and highway-use tax.

While most of it is not earmarked for specific uses and is often used for street repair, the open-space tax money must be used on open space, which he said creates a problem if the city collects too much of that because then it must refund money to taxpayers from another part of the budget.

“One of the reasons governments like to waive TABOR is because it makes it very difficult to budget,” Widner said. “What happens is you have to hold on to the revenues in case you assemble more money than you have to keep.”

He said since the law was passed in 1992, about 70 percent of governments that have sought exemptions from voters have succeeded.

Mayor Cathy Noon said the exemption helps the city do long-term planning and that while people may think the open-space tax was exempted, it is not when it comes to the city.

Read more:Centennial will ask voters for TABOR exemption – The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21458059/centennial-will-ask-voters-tabor-exemption#ixzz2CbeZ6Onz
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