Boulder Vacancy Tax on Homes Occupied 183 Days or Less

Ballot issue 2J taxes Boulder homes that are occupied for 183 days or less in a year. If voters approve, the tax begins January 1, 2028, at $4,000 a home. It rises each year with the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Consumer Price Index, never falls below $4,000 and never exceeds $7,000. The money goes to general city services; the question names police and fire protection, parks and recreation, and transportation and maintenance, and adds other general services. The question sets no end date, and the revenue and its earnings fall outside TABOR's revenue and spending limits.

If it passes, the referring ordinance says the council will adopt a new chapter of the Boulder Revised Code to put the tax in place by January 1, 2028. City staff told the council that chapter would "craft the program details, including its administration, enforcement, and legally permissible exceptions to the tax." Mayor Aaron Brockett said in June that he wants an exemption for property owners trying to rent out their homes, Boulder Reporting Lab reported.

The ballot question estimates revenue of $6,000,000 in 2028, the first full fiscal year of collection. The staff fiscal note estimates 500 to 1,000 vacant homes in the city, and Axios Boulder reported that staff drew that range from water-use data on homes vacant more than six months of the year. The note works from 1,000 homes at $4,000 a year: $4,000,000 in forecast revenue in 2028 and an estimated $300,000 to run the program. The note says other reports estimate more vacant homes.

Axios Boulder wrote that the tax "is intended as a deterrent, not a money-maker," and that city officials hope it will limit multi-home ownership and restock the housing supply. The Daily Camera reported that staff and supporters see it as a way to address Boulder's housing supply, in that owners may be encouraged to rent out or sell second homes they seldom use. Councilmember Matt Benjamin said, "In many ways, this is repatriating sales tax revenue that would otherwise come to our community if these houses were occupied." Of the measures the council weighed, the vacancy tax polled best, the paper reported: 64 percent of 400 likely voters surveyed in June favored it, and 70 percent said they were more likely to support it after learning it would target second and third homes. The ballot text sets the tax by days occupied and names no exceptions. The City Council referred the question in Ordinance 8759, adopted 7-1 on August 6, 2026. Councilmember Nicole Speer dissented because she wanted a fee instead, the Daily Camera reported.