John Scarffe, Black Hawk.   The Black Hawk City Council approved an ordinance to expand the city’s use tax to all tangible property and all taxable services, upon approval of the voters, during a regular meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at 211 Church Street. The council also considered an amendment to a Memorandum of Understanding with Georgetown for the design and construction of the Georgetown Lake Lagoon Dredging project.

The council approved implementing an ordinance to amend the Black Hawk Municipal Code to reflect the upcoming tax ballot question, provided voter approval is obtained.

On November 6, 2018, city voters will be asked to approve an increase of the rate of the use tax as well as an expansion of the use tax to apply to the privilege of using, storing, distributing or consuming any article of tangible personal property within the city, according to the request for council action.

If voter approval is obtained, revisions to the Black Hawk Municipal Code will be required to enact the changes. This ordinance conditionally implements the aforementioned changes, pending results from the upcoming election.

According to the ordinance: “There is imposed a six percent use tax to be imposed for the privilege of storing, using, distributing or consuming within the city any article of tangible personal property or any taxable service purchased, including, without limitation, construction and building materials and on motor or other vehicles on which registration is required which are purchased at retail. (b) Effective January 1, 2009, one-and-one-half percent of the use tax imposed in subsection (a) above shall be for the purpose of providing financial support to the Gilpin County School 2.”

The agenda for the meeting was revised last minute by adding an amendment to a memorandum of understanding with Georgetown for the design and construction of the Georgetown Lake Lagoon Dredging project, and the council went into an executive session to discuss it.

After the executive session, the council passed the amendment to the Georgetown agreement for the design and construction of the Georgetown Lake Lagoon Dredging project. The amendment states that the project costs will not exceed $250,000. Black Hawk’s reimbursement obligation will be capped at $675,000.

The parties agree that the $975,622 grant will be considered wholly Georgetown’s funds and lawfully available to defray Georgetown’s required payments of its share of the project costs.

(Originally published in the October 18, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)