{"id":21269,"date":"2020-02-04T11:50:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T18:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=62992"},"modified":"2020-02-04T11:50:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T18:50:52","slug":"high-country-real-estate-pros-head-to-capitol-in-effort-to-kill-short-term-rental-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/high-country-real-estate-pros-head-to-capitol-in-effort-to-kill-short-term-rental-tax-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"High Country real estate pros head to Capitol in effort to kill short-term rental tax bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Short term vacation rentals in Breckenridge, as pictured on Tuesday, Jan. 21. <\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Real estate representatives from Summit, Eagle, Grand and Denver counties headed to the state Capitol on Thursday to speak against Senate Bill 20-109<\/a>, which proposes taxing short-term rental units as commercial properties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Summit Association of Realtors set up the 90-minute meeting with Sen. Bob Gardner \u2014 R-Colorado Springs, who proposed the bill \u2014 and real estate and government representatives from Denver and surrounding mountain communities. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all really clear that we wanted \u2018no\u2019 on SB-109,\u201d Summit Association of Realtors president Dana Cottrell said. \u201cI think some of the biggest points are that it would be a statewide mandate. We have a thriving tourism industry. We don\u2019t want to see anything that hurts that. This bill didn\u2019t have any long-term vision for sustaining our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand County Commissioner Richard Cimino said he believes 90% of short-term rental housing in Grand County would not rent or sell if the bill became a law, according to Summit Mountain Rentals co-owner Mary Waldman, who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSen. Gardner, he made it very clear to us that he was aware of the disastrous economic impact that this bill would have in our mountain communities,\u201d Waldman said.<\/p>\n

Cottrell and Waldman said Gardner informed them during the meeting that he does not have a Senate or House sponsor for the bill. Without a sponsor, the bill cannot move forward<\/a>. Based on discussions during the meeting, Waldman said she did not think Gardner was actively looking for a sponsor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark and I are very hopeful that the bill will not go anywhere,\u201d Waldman said, referring to her husband, the other co-owner of Summit Mountain Rentals. \u201cOverall, I thought it was good that our local businesspeople got together. Certainly, there\u2019s a lot of education for us to do in the community that short-term rentals are not the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottrell said that while she doesn\u2019t see the bill moving forward, the short-term rental can of worms has been opened at the state level. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that it doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s going to be an issue for us this year, but I think the one thing we all walked away with is it will be a topic that we\u2019ll have to continue to address,\u201d Cottrell said. <\/p>\n

Cottrell said she thinks short-term rentals should stay designated as residential properties in Summit County, and Waldman said rule changes should not be initiated at the state level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s best up to our local communities to make these use laws,\u201d Waldman said.<\/p>\n

Summit Combined Housing Authority Executive Director Amy Priegel said that while the organization does not have an official stance on this particular bill, it appreciates the much-needed discussion the bill has sparked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a balance is good in most things as far as housing goes,\u201d Priegel said. \u201c\u2026 From our local housing perspective, it does seem to be circling around that bigger issue of balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priegel noted that a significant portion of units in the county are second homes that sit vacant for portions of the year or are short-term rentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we like is some of the programs and steps our local organizations are taking to address it,\u201d Priegel said about housing issues in the county, citing programs like Housing Helps<\/a>, a workforce housing program in Breckenridge.<\/p>\n

Breckenridge Mayor Eric Mamula said he is unsurprised the bill doesn\u2019t seem to be gaining momentum. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the third or fourth time this has come up, and it never gets any legs,\u201d Mamula said. \u201cI think there\u2019s too much resistance. \u2026 It\u2019s a hard thing to push.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamula pointed out that there are a lot of players when it comes to property taxes, including the state, counties and individual towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think there are too many pieces to make it work,\u201d Mamula said. \u201cIt sounds like it\u2019s an easy solution, but it\u2019s really not. What the town\u2019s done with occupancy restrictions and the hotlines for parking and trash have been really effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Mamula pointed out the work the town has done with the Housing Helps program and deed-restrictions that aim to help the local workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town\u2019s doing what it can to mitigate some of the effects,\u201d Mamula said.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short term vacation rentals in Breckenridge, as pictured on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 Real estate representatives from Summit, Eagle, Grand and Denver counties headed to the state Capitol on Thursday to speak against Senate Bill 20-109, which proposes taxing short-term rental units as commercial properties. The Summit Association of Realtors set up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 01:20:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}