Greeley’s Sales Tax for a Civic Campus, the Catalyst Project and City Facilities

Greeley Ballot Issue 2F would raise the city’s sales and use tax by 0.6 percentage point, or 60 cents on a $100 purchase, beginning January 1, 2027. The increase would not apply to grocery food purchases, the city says. The question states the increase as $20 million in 2027 “and by such additional amounts as are collected each year thereafter.” The city calls the $20 million an estimate and says revenue “will depend on taxable sales.”

The money could pay for the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of four groups of projects: the Downtown Civic Campus, with a city hall, public plaza and parking garage; the West Greeley Catalyst Project, with an arena, youth ice center, water park and hotel; recreational, cultural and service facilities; and city parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, trails and other outdoor spaces. The question says the tax would preserve existing city revenues for streets, other city facilities, capital improvements and deferred maintenance, and that its expenditures would be subject to independent review by a citizens committee.

A yes vote would let the city pledge the new revenue to the financing for any of the listed projects as a multiple fiscal year financial obligation, and pledge other revenue it collects from the Catalyst project to the Catalyst financing. The tax would end when the financings for the civic campus and Catalyst, and any refundings of them, are paid in full, and no later than December 31, 2067. The revenue and its earnings would be kept and spent “without limitation or condition” as a voter-approved revenue change under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights or any other law.

City Manager Brian McBroom has said a 40-year term could lift the city’s bond rating to “at least an A,” BizWest reported.

Catalyst is a city project on Greeley’s western edge, and most of its land is the Cascadia development led by Colorado Eagles owner Martin Lind. To pay for predevelopment, the council issued certificates of participation secured by city buildings, a kind of financing that, as Complete Colorado reported, does not need to go to voters. BizWest reported “$115 million in existing debt for Catalyst.” The Greeley Tribune, citing the city attorney, puts the debt at $92 million.

Under the original plan, Provident Resource Group was to borrow the $832 million needed for construction, backed by the city’s moral obligation, the Tribune reported. The February 24 special election that voted to repeal the Cascadia zoning led the banks to refuse that debt, and Weld County commissioners declined to partner with the city in late July. On September 10, District Judge Shannon Lyons ruled the February election unconstitutional and found it did not validly repeal the zoning; opponents are considering an appeal, Complete Colorado reported. Mayor Dale Hall said the city would keep the project on pause while it seeks a financial partner.

City Attorney Stacey Aurzada told the council, “We had recommended the 0.6% so that it gives the best credit enhancement we can to get to the revenue bonds for the Catalyst project,” and said that if those bonds prove impossible, the tax could still pay off the certificates. The city estimates that without the new tax, repaying the $92 million will cost at least $147 million with interest, drawn from the food tax and the quality-of-life tax, the Tribune reported. Staff have also warned that the city “will have the funds to address the debt for both projects” but “would be unable to fund any other project,” possibly requiring further budget cuts, the paper reported.

On September 15 the council voted 4 to 3 to issue up to $95 million in certificates of participation for the new city hall, with annual payments of “up to $8.4 million, beginning in 2027 and continuing through 2046,” the Tribune reported. The paper adds that money from the 0.6 percent tax would also go toward paying off those certificates.

On August 25 the council declined to send voters a 0.5 percent tax, estimated at up to $16 million a year, with the mayor citing the short time before ballots went out. The broader 0.6 percent question was added to the September 1 agenda “just minutes before the legal deadline to change public meeting agendas,” the Tribune reported.

The council adopted it 5 to 2 and voted 7 to 0 to remove MERGE, a U.S. 34 interchange project, from the language. Councilman Craig Huddleston, voting no, said he preferred 20 years and a half point and warned that the money “could be 100% Catalyst, or it could be 100% civic campus.”