Efforts to boost affordable housing on life…
Efforts to boost affordable housing on life support at Colorado statehouse
The centerpiece of the package is House Bill 1309, which would double an existing filing fee on real estate transactions in order to fund a number of affordable housing programs.
By Brian Eason | brianeason@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: May 2, 2017 at 1:01 pm | UPDATED: May 2, 2017 at 5:42 pm
Democratic measures aimed at boosting the supply of affordable housing in Colorado are on life support at the Colorado Statehouse.
One bill was rejected on Monday, and another — the most significant in a package of four bills — was sent to the Senate "kill committee," State Affairs, where it's expected to be defeated by Republicans on Wednesday.
With just days remaining in the 2017 legislative session, the measure's defeat would effectively snuff out the last major effort to make progress on an issue that Democrats named as one of their top priorities heading into the year.
A study released earlier this year measuring home affordability relative to income underscored the severity of the problem: Seven of the 12 least affordable counties in the country are found along Colorado's Front Range.
The centerpiece of the Democrats' affordable housing package is House Bill 1309, which would double an existing filing fee on real estate transactions. The money would fund affordable housing programs offered by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, including financial assistance for first-time homebuyers and gap financing for developers.
Variations on the proposal date back to at least 2008. But it has encountered stiff resistance from Realtors, who oppose any effort to increase fees on residential and commercial real estate sales, and conservatives, who are ideologically opposed to most fee hikes.
The bill would double the state's existing one cent per $100 valuation documentary fee, costing a buyer an additional $30 on a property worth $300,000. It's projected to generate more than $7 million annually, according to a legislative fiscal analysis.
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The bill would also expand the pool of homebuyers eligible for assistance to those who make 110 percent of area median income. Renters could qualify at up to 80 percent of median income.
Jackson said she tried to find common ground with Realtors, but their opposition to a fee hike was unflinching. "Quite frankly, I don't quite understand it," Jackson said. "It would allow more people to enter the buyers market."
At a committee hearing last week, a spokesman for the Colorado Association of Realtors argued it would do just the opposite. "You can't make housing more expensive and then try to make it more affordable," said Jason Hopfer.
Republicans agree. "The reason why we have this affordable housing problem is because we keep doing things like this," said Rep. Tim Leonard, R-Evergreen. "(It's) $35 here, $70 there, in order to help a problem that in a sense we have created by continually making the cost of home ownership more and more expensive."
Jackson countered that the fee is so small on such a huge purchase that it shouldn't affect those who can afford to buy a home today. "If you can't afford $30 on a $300,000 property, then maybe you shouldn't be buying a $300,000 property," she said in an interview.
Setting aside ideological differences, the bill faces a legal hurdle as well: Some argue the fee is actually a tax, and the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits new taxes on real estate transactions.
One of Jackson's fellow Democrats appeared to acknowledge as much earlier this session with a proposal similar to her own. Sen. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, sponsored a resolution asking voters to repeal that section of TABOR and impose a new real estate transaction tax to fund affordable housing.
If Jackson's proposal fails, Democrats would still have two housing bills pending. House Bill 1311 would require sellers to provide estimates of the future property taxes of a home, while House Bill 1312 would require landlords to provide tenants a copy of their rental agreement and receipts when paying rent with cash or money orders.
The Senate earlier this week defeated House Bill 1310, which sought to put limits on how much a landlord can charge prospective renters in application fees.
Brian Eason
Brian Eason is a former Denver Post reporter. He joined The Post from the Indianapolis Star, where he covered city hall for the news outlet's watchdog team beginning in 2014. Before that, he was an investigative reporter at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., and covered local government at The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tenn. He graduated in 2009 from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and political science.
Follow Brian Eason	@brianeason
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