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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution-1984-0922 RESOLUTION NO. 922 Series of 1984 TITLE: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WHEAT RIDGE, COLORADO, EXPRESSING OPPOSITION TO SALES TAX "SIMPLIFICATION" LEGISLATION WHICH WOULD ELIMINATE LOCAL CONTROL OF THE MUNICIPAL SALES TAX BASE AND LOCAL CONTROL OF SALES AND USE TAX ENFORCEMENT. WHEREAS, which is levied, the City of Wheat Ridge has a sales and use tax collected and enforced locally; WHEREAS, the municipal sales and use tax is the principal tax source for our municipality, raising in 1983 $4,544,712 in revenue in comparison with only $455,015 raised from the municipal property tax; WHEREAS, sales tax simplification legislation recommended by the interim Business Issues Committee for consideration during the 1985 legislative session would require the local sales tax base and definitions to conform with the state base and definitions, centralize enforcement and auditing powers and procedures in the State Department of Revenue, prohibit application of use taxes to storage, and generally reduce local sales and use tax revenues of home rule municipalities; WHEREAS, the state base has become unreliable and smaller in recent years through enactment of many exemptions; and WHEREAS, the City of Wheat Ridge supports many revisions in the sales and use tax system which will streamline state and local sales and use taxes without major loss of local control or local revenues; WHEREAS, the City estimates that enactment of the bill recom- mended by the Business Issues Committee could result in a loss of $352,000 in fiscal year 1985 and additional losses in future years: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY OF WHEAT RIDGE, that the City Council: * Opposes any sales tax legislation which ties the local sales and use tax to the state tax base with or without local options; * Opposes granting the Department of Revenue unilateral authority to determine and control all definitions relating to local sales tax bases; * Opposes centralization of auditing, enforcement and appeals authority in the Department of Revenue; 1 * Opposes loss of authority for municipalities to impose use taxes on storage; * Opposes efforts to provide tax reductions to special interests through state mandated reductions in local sales and use taxes; * Supports legislation drafted by the Colorado Municipal League which would simplify the sales tax system without unduly interfering with local control of the sales and use tax by, among other things: Requiring use of a standardized sales and use tax reporting form for all home rule municipalities which collect their own sales tax; Providing single audit sales and use tax protection at the option of the taxpayer rather than mandatorily for all taxpayers operating in more than one jurisdiction; Authorizing statutory municipalities and counties to conduct sales tax audits subject to procedures and requirements established by the Department of Revenue; Making procedures of home rule municipalities uniform with the state's with respect to various collection and enforcement procedures; Prohibiting double taxation of sales and use tax transactions; Accelerating remittance of Department of Revenue collections to those municipalities and counties whose sales taxes are collected by the state; Simplifying taxation of construction and building materials; Requiring municipalities to provide geographical maps or location guides to retailers; and Establishing a task force within state government of State and local officials and business representatives to standard- ize sales and use tax definitions and otherwise streamline state sales and use tax practices. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Council urges its senator(s) and representative(s) to support sales tax simplification legislation as outlined above and vigorously oppose any state legis- lation which would provide for state control of the local sales and use tax base, centralize enforcement activities in the Department of Revenue, or otherwise result in the loss of local control and local revenues, and support the Colorado Municipal League towards these ends. INTRODUCED, READ, PASSED, AND ADOPTED by the City Council of the City of Wheat Ridge this 10th day of December 1984 ATTES]: L ,-- I \. . j 9J~~(/- ?~I Wanda Sang, City CI~k . 'Z' 1/ 'J?' J II /4-[, [,-:-- Frank Stites, Mayor 2.