Ideas bandied at growth summit City revenue sharing among suggestions

Nearly 100 elected officials, city managers, business people and others met at a Summit On Regional Cooperation held in Arvada.

Some of the suggestions posed by members of the group may be presented to the Colorado Legislature as early as January, leaders said, while others may just be fodder for debate.

"All of us agree there has to be something done," said Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. "We all have to look at what we're willing to give up to get it done."

One proposal for upcoming legislation dealt with revenue sharing, a long-discussed item among local governments that rely on sales-tax revenues to fuel their municipal budgets. Cities frequently compete to lure stores, and a grocery store moving across the street from one jurisdiction to another can have a major impact on a small community.

The proposal would force revenue sharing among contiguous communities if there is development in one of the cities that would undermine the sales-tax collections in the adjacent community.

Unless cities "deal with competition for sales tax between communities, we're going to continue to have bad land-use decisions," said John Parr , a principal with the Center for Regional Neighborhood Action, a local consulting firm.

Similar measures have been passed in California and Utah, Parr said. "We've talked about this issue for years and years."

Members of the group also suggested some other longer-term measures but acknowledged that it would take a major education campaign for them to win support from cities and legislators.

One proposal would replace local residential property tax with an income-tax increase collected by the state. Another would have the state collect money from online computer commerce and then distribute it to local governments based on population.

Attendees also looked at issues surrounding affordable housing. One solution is a model ordinance that would require 15 percent of new developments to be affordable housing. Members of the group said they would start work on drafting a model ordinance for cities to review within two months.

The group said it would also research state tax credits and seek legislative backing for affordable-housing incentives. Other proposals to change state law would put teeth in comprehensive plans and require intergovernmental agreements to enforce the plans for adjacent jurisdictions.

"We may not come to the answers today," said Peter Kenney, summit moderator. "What we could do is make a commitment that these strategies are the right strategies."