The Colorado Sun delivered a rare sighting from the Gold Dome: legislators actually killed a tax. Reporter Jason Blevins covers how House Bill 1036, pitched as a way for resort communities to address housing shortages, died in the House Finance Committee after more than four hours of testimony from more than 50 people. The committee voted 7-4 to reject it.
HB 1036, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Brianna Titone and Elizabeth Velasco, would have let local voters create a new excise tax category for homes that sit empty for long stretches of the year, with the revenue aimed at affordable housing projects. Supporters framed it as getting visitors and “ultrawealthy” second-home owners to “pay their fair share,” while opponents warned it was an untested, legally shaky, and administratively ugly assault on property rights.
The bill also carved out an exemption for licensed short-term rentals already paying fees and lodging taxes, but it still would have put local governments in the business of deciding whether your home was “vacant enough” to deserve a tax penalty.
The Bullet Point Brief
- HB 1036 was a vacancy tax permission slip: it would have allowed cities, counties, or housing authorities to ask voters to tax homes left empty for big chunks of the year. The House Finance Committee said “no,” 7-4.
- Supporters said mountain communities can have as many as 40% of homes sitting empty most of the year, and they need “one more tool” to fund affordable housing. They always need “one more tool.” Funny how that tool is always a tax.
- Steamboat Springs and Crested Butte are already cautionary tales: Steamboat council members narrowly killed a proposed $3,100-a-year vacancy tax in August, and Crested Butte voters rejected a $2,500 vacancy tax in 2021. Even ski towns have their limits.
- County treasurers came in hot with the practical reality: creating a tax category based on occupancy, not property value, would mean big administrative burdens, major operational strain, and potentially $150,000 to $300,000 a year just to run it in midsized rural counties. Affordable housing, brought to you by more bureaucracy.
- Opponents also raised legal and privacy alarms, pointing to lawsuits elsewhere and warning this invites litigation. Homebuilders’ Ted Leighty summed it up: you do not tax things you want more of. You are “rearranging deck chairs,” not building more of them.
My Bottom Line
This story is a shocking glimpse of common sense from an otherwise insane legislature. They met a tax they did not like and, for once, they did not fall for the sales pitch that “local control” magically makes a bad idea good.
Let’s call this what it was. Some mountain counties wanted permission to punish people for owning property they do not use the way the government prefers. That is not housing policy. That is a direct assault on property rights dressed up in compassionate language and a crisis headline.
And the administrative side is just as telling. The people who actually have to implement this mess, county treasurers and assessors, warned it would be an operational disaster and a magnet for lawsuits. Translation: taxpayers would get hit twice. Once with the new tax, and again with the cost of running it, enforcing it, and defending it in court.
Colorado’s total tax burden on property owners is high enough, thank you. If lawmakers want more housing, here is a radical thought: make it easier to build, stop strangling development with red tape, and quit treating homeowners like an ATM. I’m glad this one died. Some days the Capitol surprises you, in a good way.
Source: The Colorado Sun
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