Frequently Asked Questions

  • What ballot measure are you trying to pass?  “The Arts, Culture and Heritage Tax”  ballot measure, which would extend an existing City of Boulder 0.15% sales and use tax that sunsets on 12/31/24 o benefit all Boulder residents through support for arts, culture, and heritage activities and facilities. Please remember that this is not a new tax but an extension of an existing tax. Taxes will not be increased. 

  • Would this increase our taxes over current levels?   No, it would not!  Again, this is an extension of an existing 20-year tax.  

  • Is this a City or County of Boulder effort? This is City of Boulder only and only addresses the City’s budget.

  • How much money will it generate? How much more is that than current spending? And when will it start?  Depending on actual sales tax revenues for the City, this ballot measure would result in an estimated $7.5 million annually of dedicated arts and culture funding that would begin on January 1, 2025 and run through 2044. As a result, total support for arts and culture would increase by about $5.7 million annually over current levels, while preserving more money in the General Fund.

  • What will the money be used for?  The ballot measure says the 0.15% tax revenues will fund initiatives through the City’s Office of Arts and Culture to support directly, or through grants programs, the following: general operating, project, and capital needs for arts and culture organizations; venues and workspaces; murals, temporary public art experiences, and art in public places; creative workforce and professional artists; arts education; diverse programming, cultural heritage programming, the preservation of local history and the vibrancy of creative experiences available to the community. Funding from this tax also would be used for spaces and facilities for arts and culture purposes.

     A 2022 study by an independent panel of experts identified critical areas of need in Boulder’s arts ecosystem. A key finding: “Boulder could make swift progress in meeting the community’s needs through an ‘adaptive re-use’ strategy that would recycle existing buildings to provide additional smaller spaces for performances, studios, rehearsals, galleries, lessons, administrative offices, and even housing.” The panel noted this nearer-term vision would be especially appropriate for Boulder, which has a successful history of adapting vintage buildings for arts and culture purposes.

  • How will the City determine how the funds are spent?  What oversight will there be?  The City’s Community Cultural Plan, its master plan for arts and culture, sets forth priorities and goals that determine how the City’s arts and culture resources are allocated. “The Community Cultural Plan will be updated in 2024 with robust input from Boulder’s artists, arts and culture leaders, arts educators and the broader community. If this tax extension is passed in November 2023, the Office of Arts and Culture will have over a year to develop a new master plan for how the funds will be distributed, and City Council will need to approve it before the start of 2025, the first year that tax revenues would be appropriated. The Boulder Arts Commission (BAC) rigorously oversees the City’s arts and culture grants and public art programs pursuant to the City’s charter and revised code [1].  The BAC’s seven members are appointed by City Council for five-year terms.  

  • How does the City of Boulder use the 0.15% tax money now, and how will it replace the revenues? The 0.15% tax revenues currently go to the General Fund, which is the portion of the budget that covers many of the City’s function areas, including maintenance of facilities, paths and parks, housing and human service programs, public safety, arts and culture, communications, and, currently, library services. When the new Library District becomes operational in 2025, it will be funded by a dedicated property tax, preserving an estimated $9 million annually in the General Fund that previously was spent on libraries. The combined impact of this budget transfer and the reallocation of the 0.15% tax for arts and culture would provide an additional $3.3 million net increase in the General Fund [2]. 

  • In lieu of this ballot initiative, could the City allocate long-term dedicated funding for arts and culture from the General Fund?  No, because all spending from the General Fund is subject to annual approval by City Council through the City’s annual budgeting process. This means that funding amounts can and do vary from year to year. The only way to ensure long-term funding for arts and culture is by dedicating a tax, as has been done for decades for both Open Space and Parks and Recreation.  

  • How does the $7.5 million spending level for the Office of Arts and Culture compare to the City’s spending on other ‘quality of life’ services? The spending would total one-tenth of what the City spends to support Parks and Recreation and Open Space and Mountain Parks, which are budgeted at $40.1 million and $34.9 million, respectively, or $75 million combined in 2023. 

  • How and why are other communities in Colorado prioritizing the arts? Many are making significant investments to retain and attract creative professions and to strengthen their local communities and economies:

    Fort Collins and Arvada invested in arts facilities and infrastructure in the 1970’s, while Basalt, Breckenridge, Lone Tree, Parker, and Silverthorne have built cultural arts facilities in recent years. In addition, Longmont [3] and Thornton [4] are planning new arts complexes, and Colorado Springs is making major investments to renovate its historic downtown theater. 

    Loveland, Carbondale, Trinidad, Ridgeway, and Grand Lake have built affordable live-work spaces and other supporting spaces for creatives in recent years. Grand Junction and Colorado Springs are in advanced planning stages to build affordable artist-centric live-work spaces.  

  • Does public support for arts and culture in Boulder generate a positive return on investment?   Yes!  While the City spends $1.8 million on cultural affairs, according to a study by Americans for the Arts [5], the nonprofit arts and culture industry in the City of Boulder in 2015 (the latest data available adjusted for inflation, generated almost $90 million in annual economic activity – supporting 1,832 full-time equivalent jobs and generating $2.8 million in local government revenues. Event-related spending at restaurants, hotels, and local businesses by 1.3 million arts and culture event attendees totaled $44 million.    In addition, other studies show that Boulder has 4,500 professional artists, who together represent 3.5% of Boulder’s workforce [6] placing Boulder third in the concentration of artists behind such arts powerhouses as Santa Fe and Los Angeles [7].  

  • Doesn’t the SCFD (Scientific and Cultural Facilities District) already support our nonprofit arts organizations? Yes, but organizations in Boulder receive significantly less than their peers in other counties in Metro-Denver. In 2022, the largest general operating support grant awarded to Boulder’s Tier III organizations (the tier for all but four of Boulder’s SCFD-funded organizations) was $29,700. This compares to maximum awards of $78,000 to $290,000 for Tier III organizations in other Metro-Denver counties.

  • Does the City plan to put a competing measure on the ballot that would simply extend the current 0.15% General Fund tax?  Yes, we believe that is the City’s intent.  

  • What happens  if we fail to get this on the ballot or the ballot measure doesn’t pass? The voters will likely approve extending the current 0.15% tax even if this measure fails.   In that case, 100% of the revenues would continue to flow into the General Fund, which also would receive a $9 million annual windfall due to a shift in funding for the new Library District. In this scenario, there can be no assurance that the City will invest in arts and culture at levels needed for a healthy, vibrant, and resilient community. 

Sources

[1] See Title 14 – The Arts in the City’s Charter and Municipal Code:  https://library.municode.com/co/boulder/codes/municipal_code?nodeId=TIT14AR [2] The City’s current library district budget, currently paid for from the General Fund, is $9MM. The Office of Arts and Culture budget currently paid for from the General Fund is $1.8MM. The combined costs of $10.8MM would no longer be supported by the General Fund. Revenues from the 0.15% sales and use tax repurposed to the arts totals $7.5MM. Hence the net impact on the General Fund would be $10.8 MM - $7.5 MM or an increase of $3.3MM. [3]  Longmont is in the early stages of planning for an $80MM theater, event space and hotel.  The City and a group of  performing arts organizations are discussing a $45 MM public/$35MM private investment.  The City is surveying residents to determine appetite for a  .06% sales and use tax, and property tax increase of $76/year on a $500,000 home.  [4]  The City of Thornton is proposing to put a new .15% sales and use tax to support development of a new cultural center on the November 2024 ballot.  [5] Source: 2017 Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading industry group committed to advancing the arts and arts education.  An Arts & Economy Prosperity 6 study is currently underway and will be released in 2024.  [6] Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics referenced in the City of Boulder’s 2019 Census of Boulder Artists [7] Data from the National Endowment of the arts referenced in the City of Boulder’s 2019 Census of Boulder Artists