Pitkin County voters approved a property tax during November’s election. What comes next?

With Pitkin County voters approving a new property tax to support affordable and workforce housing earlier this month, the county now has to decide what to do with the funds.

In a budget presentation to the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 19, Pitkin County Community Resiliency and Housing Director Ashley Perl and Pitkin County Budget Director Connie Baker presented a 2025 budget appropriation plan for the new housing fund.

“It’s exciting because we have a property tax for the next 20 years starting in 2025 that will fund housing,” Perl said. “We’ve been trying to think about what 2025 will bring and what the opportunities will be and really trying to set up the board to be able to act on any opportunities as they come up.”

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The November ballot question asked voters to support a new property tax for up to the next 25 years for a mill levy of 1.5 mills. For homeowners, the tax is approximately a $121 increase per $1 million of property value annually. For commercial property owners, it is approximately a $435 increase per $1 million of value annually.

This will bring in about $8.5 million in 2025 that can be used for attracting and retaining essential workers, partnering on housing programs, buying deed restrictions on free market housing, creating a capital reserve maintenance fund, reducing homelessness impacts on public agencies, and prioritizing housing in areas consistent with existing employment, services, and facilities to protect rural character, the presentation stated.

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The proposed 2025 budget, which includes nearly $8.9 million in revenues and $12.1 million in expenditures, includes five general expenditure categories: salaries; acquisitions; partnerships; reducing homelessness impacts; and capital maintenance.

Salaries, wages, benefits, and insurance will make up $118,000. This accounts for 25% of the housing director’s time and 50% of the housing analyst’s time.

Even though the county has staff that work exclusively on housing, not all of the work is associated with the new housing fund because some of the time is still dedicated to existing, internal housing programs, which are not proposed to be funded with the new tax at this time.

Acquisitions will make up $2 million of the 2025 budget. This includes purchases of land, housing units, and property rights. Partnerships will make up $9 million. This includes the Phillips Affordable Housing Development, support for West Mountain Regional Good Deeds, regional partnerships, and supporting a new 501c3 housing trust.

“That’s the biggest bucket there, partnerships … This property tax was to allow us to sit at the table, not for us to go out on our own, but for us to be in partnership with each other,” Perl said.

With $9 million appropriated for partnerships, this would put the county over for 2025 already. Affordable housing funds totaling $5 million, however, were already set aside in the general fund, shoring up overbudgeting for partnerships.

Staff spent $450,000 out of the $5 million on the Roaring Fork Valley Habitat for Humanity’s L3 Condominium Project in Glenwood Springs. The county authorized the $450,000 funding request from the Habitat for Humanity to support Habitat’s purchase of an existing apartment building in Glenwood Springs. The project will obtain the apartment building’s 88 existing free-market rental units and will be converted into deed-restricted ownership units, mostly studio and one-bedroom apartments.

The county will also receive priority access to three housing units. County staff will then oversee the process for identifying eligible employees to purchase the units. The cost per unit to gain priority access is $150,000.

“I think that was important to us to support Habitat,” said Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper “I think we need to show the community that we were truly interested in and wanting to do partnerships.”

Reducing homelessness impacts will make up $400,000. This includes implementation support for the activities and investments that will be identified in the upcoming Homelessness Strategic Plan. And capital maintenance will make up $200,000, which includes support for the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority’s Essential Repairs Grant Program.

County staff are also drafting a long-term plan, including identified partnership and funding opportunities, for the BOCC to review in quarter one of 2025. Between now and then, Perl and her staff will know more about the housing trust and will meet with potential partners.

When the ballot language was put together, the county had some partners in mind, including Snowmass Village and its Draw Site, the Aspen School District and employee housing, as well as some of the larger employers.

Following these conversations, staff will be able to create a more detailed 5-year plan for BOCC consideration. As the county wraps up its budget presentations with county staff, the commissioners plan to vote on it during the next meeting on Dec. 4.

Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.