The ski mecca of Breckenridge, Colo., didn’t need voter approval to impose an annual fee on short term rentals intended to defray housing costs for the local workforce, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
A government can impose a regulatory fee without implicating the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights voter-approval provision, even if activities subject to the fee also generate revenue from taxes, Judge W. Eric Kuhn wrote for the Colorado court of Appeals.
The case presented the court with an issue of first impression: whether a revenue-positive regulatory charge is a tax subject to a vote under TABOR. The ...