A statewide initiative in Colorado that is being watched across the country will allot a small portion of state tax revenues to a fund for the construction of affordable housing.
The Make Colorado Affordable initiative was placed on the November ballot after supporters secured more than 200,000 petition signatures to get it there.
Officially known as Proposition 123, the initiative, if approved, will send 0.1% of Colorado’s state tax revenue to local governments, with the goal of increasing the affordable housing stock by around 3%.
Proponents of the idea say that roughly $145 million would be allotted the first year of the program, and around $290 million in subsequent years. And that revenue, in turn, could fund the building of up to 170,000 residential units in the next two decades.
One feature of the proposition calls for using the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, rather than investment banks, to lend money to developers wanting to build new affordable housing.
The initiative appears to be popular: according to one poll, it has the support of some 77% of likely voters. It has also been endorsed by a number of local officials, including Jackie Millet, Mayor of Lone Tree, who remarked: “We’ve reached a tipping point and we cannot continue to wait on the sidelines and hope that something happens.”
But the initiative is also not without opposition: the Colorado Springs Gazette recently charged that Proposition 123 will primarily “further the demand side of the state’s superheated housing economy.”
By Garry Boulard
