The Denver City Council on Monday advanced Mayor Mike Johnston’s proposal to raise the sales tax to generate $100 million for housing, though it drew criticism from some councilmembers, who called it “rushed” and expressed worries it would ultimately hurt residents. 

Meanwhile, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb has come out against the sales tax hike. Webb said the timing of the measure is wrong, even if it’s objective is good.  

During Monday’s hearing, councilmembers introduced a dozen amendments, which prompted Amanda Sawyer to say the council should not be doing “committee work.” 

“We shouldn’t have had 12 amendments tonight,” the councilmember said. “We should have had the time to bring this back to committee to have an additional conversation or two so we could hammer out these details before this came to the floor.”

“I’m really uncomfortable with the rushed nature of this. I was going to vote yes on this before the sunset conversation,” Sawyer said. “I was really hoping I could vote yes on it, but this is not ready to go to the voters.”

Ultimately, the council voted to advance the bill, 8-5. The measure still needs a final vote, which is scheduled for Aug. 19. 

Despite opposition from some in the council and the relatively close vote, Johnston’s applauded the proposal’s advance.

“The opportunity for affordable housing for all Denverites is one step closer to the November ballot,” the mayor said in a news release. “Housing costs are a significant concern for the vast majority of our residents, and the teachers, nurses, seniors, and servers who make our city run are struggling to keep up. The creation of this fund is a critical step toward ensuring Denver is a city for everyone, not just the rich, and we are grateful for Council’s partnership in this mission.”

Some councilmembers appeared to only be supporting the sales tax hike on its first reading. 

Councilmember Chris Hinds wondered how the city can be claiming to help those in need by instituting a tax that “hurts those who need (help) the most.”

He said he would support advancing the bill to its second reading, but added he’s waiting to see what happens in the next week.

During a 30 minute public hearing, members of the public also criticized the proposal, which, if approved at the ballot box, would result in Denver having one of the highest sales tax rates along the Front Range. 

Luchia Brown, a resident of District 7, shared a list of actions taken by the council that are “not working.”

“Well, those actions are not working,” Brown said. “There are these weird tricks to lower the cost of housing and it doesn’t cost the taxpayer a nickel.”

Brown added: “Up-zone the entire city and make it legal to build multifamily everywhere, get rid of parking minimums because we waste so much valuable parking spaces for unnecessary private vehicle storage.”

Margie Morris — a resident of District 10 who worked on the Johnston administration’s transition committee on homelessness and is a member of the good neighbor agreement committee for the Elati Village micro-community — said she wants to know what the “end game” of the affordable housing sales tax is. 

“There are pages of a pitch deck on this and bullet points inside the plans with all kinds of data on why we have a crisis, what the crisis looks like and how big it is. So, what does success look like?” she said. “Right now, it looks to me like it’s money that is just increasing the HOST budget and I think it’s really a missed opportunity.” 

Lewis earlier introduced an amendment, which passed 10-3, to create a methodology for assigning money from the sales tax after the first year.

While not exactly what Morris wanted to see, Lewis’ measure builds in some council oversight to the funding. The methodology is subject to City Council approval, as is the first year spending plan. Also, the methodology must be re-approved by the council annually. 

After the public hearing, Councilmember Stacie Gilmore offered a lengthy rebuke of the bill, criticizing its “rushed” nature.

Gilmore said she was appalled by the small number of residents signing up to speak during the public hearing.

“For the largest sales tax increase in the history of Denver, we were able to get through all who signed up in a little over half an hour,” she said. “If the voters knew what we were contemplating, we would have needed at least an hour courtesy public hearing to hear from all those affected.”

“There’s simply no time to do proper outreach,” she said. 

Webb, the former mayor, said he’s not opposed to affordable housing, CBS News Colorado reported. 

“I’m opposed to the timing,” Webb told CBS News.

Webb said city officials should prioritize another tax hike, which seeks to increase the sales tax rate by 0.35 points, in order to help fund Denver Health.  

“I was surprised that Mayor Johnston, who has a lot of issues on his plate primarily around homelessness, did not delay it until the spring in order to get one of these issues passed,” Webb said.