Everyone wants their piece of the pie in Clear Creek County.
- The problem is, there’s only one piece, and both Georgetown and the county say it belongs to them.
- The standoff on the hill from Denver comes in the form of a 2% housing tax that Clear Creek County and the quaint mountain town of 1,100 on a short exit off Interstate 70 levy on hotels, boarding houses, and inns. short-term rental.
- Georgetown says the county needs to rein in its taxman after the November election when voters passed a housing tax that the city says is meant to replace the Clear Creek levy starting on the first of the year. He points to state law that allows Colorado counties to levy taxes on visitor stays, with the caveat that “no tax is levied in any municipality that levies a lodging tax.”
- But Clear Creek County insists that Georgetown voters did not pay a housing tax per se, but a tax on the room or house rentals, which it claims is distinct from the county tax and is not an act of “double taxation.”
“The county tax remains in effect and enforceable as it has been since it was enacted in 1990,” County Superintendent Brian Boshardt said. “It continues to be collected by the Department of Revenue; it remains on the Department of Revenue forms and has never been removed from those forms.”
A Department of Revenue spokesman told The Denver Post that the agency had no comment on “a matter between the two local governments.”
Jamie Lacrosse, the owner of a Georgetown B&B on Rose Street, stands on her front porch on January 24, 2023. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
The as-yet unresolvable stalemate has put people like Jaime Lacrosse, owner of the Rose Street bed and breakfast in Georgetown, in a predicament. It now charges customers a total fee of 14.05%, which amounts to a different state, county, and city sales tax liabilities.
It also includes a 2 percent housing tax paid twice, once to Georgetown and once to Clear Creek County, although analysis accompanying the ballot assured voters that the Georgetown tax “replaces the current 2 percent housing tax that is currently charged by the county. ”
“Of course it’s disappointing,” said Lacrosse, whose four-room bed and breakfast is at the head of a road that winds and climbs more than 3,000 feet to the Guanella Pass. “I don’t believe they should both be able to tax. Clear Creek County refuses to back down and the city refuses to back down. They both want money.
Rick Keroglyan, the city administrator for Georgetown, predicts that the city will receive about $225,000 annually in housing taxes. Georgetown has about 100 licensed short-term rentals and several hotels and beds and breakfasts.
“The county is refusing to stop collecting and this is putting our suppliers in a very awkward position,” Keroglian said.
Other Colorado cities that have introduced their own housing taxes, such as Winter Park and Telluride, Grand and San Miguel counties have cut their taxes accordingly, he said. Telluride Daily Planet reported last year that Telluride residents voted to eliminate the 2% countywide occupancy tax and replace it with a city tax on rooms rented for 29 days or less.
Georgetown is the only community left in the state that operates under a territorial charter, a governance structure that preceded Colorado’s statehood in 1876. This gives Georgetown self-governing powers, Keroglian said.
“Everyone is upset because the county won’t stop collecting,” he said. “This is a strange situation and we hope it gets resolved before it goes to trial.”
But if this week’s meeting of the Board of Chosen in Georgetown was any sign, a lawsuit could be on the horizon. On Tuesday night, city leaders held a closed executive session to “obtain legal advice and brief negotiators on their upcoming litigation: the housing tax.”
View of Georgetown from the Guanella Pass on January 24, 2023. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Colorado Municipal League chief executive Kevin Bommer said he has not seen a stalemate like the one currently playing out in Clear Creek County. But his sympathies are with Georgetown.
“I think the law is clear – if the municipality imposes a housing tax, the county is prohibited from levying it,” he said. “If he walks like a duck and talks like a duck…”
Sharon Rossino, a real estate broker who handles short-term property rentals in Georgetown, said the city – less than an hour away from Denver – is attractive to families on a budget who want to avoid the pricier holiday offering of Summit or Eagle Counties.
But imposing a tax on the tax won’t help Georgetown homeowners keep motorists off I-70 as they make their way to the Eisenhower Tunnel and across the Continental Divide, she said.
“No one wants this to drag on or turn into a legal battle,” Rossino said. “But many in the short-term rental community feel that visitors are now being taxed twice, and this is unfair. More and more people are scared away by another tax hike – it all adds up.”