BROOMFIELD OKS REBATE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY ITEMS

Broomfield residents and businesses soon will be eligible for a tax
rebate for installing solar panels or wind turbines thanks to changes
to the city sales tax code approved last week.

The changes also waive the requirement that schools, booster
associations and parent-teacher organizations collect city sales tax
when they host school fundraisers.

City Council approved the changes Tuesday in a 10-0 vote. It is the
first time since 2001 that Broomfield will change the code.

The rebate program, which will run through 2014, will refund use tax
residents and businesses pay on equipment such as solar panels, wind
turbines and support structures needed to build solar or wind power
systems. It parallels a rebate offered by the state.

The rebates won't put much of a dent in the tax base, according to
projections from the city. Through the first 10 months of 2009, the
city collected $25,250 in use tax on renewable energy equipment, a
tiny fraction of the $34.1 million Broomfield collected in that time
frame.

When the program was proposed in January, some council members were
concerned about people claiming a rebate for construction material
that had nothing to do with renewable energy generation. The Building
Department reviewed the policy and signed off on it, City and County
Attorney Bill Tuthill said.

"They're comfortable that within these definitions they'll be able to
determine what's eligible and what isn't," Tuthill said.

To be eligible for the rebate, approval must be received in advance
from the Building Department, Finance Director Pat Soderberg said
after the meeting. The department will estimate the cost of the
materials and calculate the use tax when it issues a building permit,
which is required for all substantial home or commercial renovation
projects.

After the project is installed, the builder will fill out paperwork
with the Finance Department to claim the rebate, Soderberg said.

Eliminating the requirement that schools collect sales tax during
fundraisers will cost the city less than the renewable energy rebates.
Through the first 10 months of 2009, the city collected $11,100 from
school fundraisers.

The elimination of the sales tax mirrors a change to the state tax
code approved by the Legislature in 2008, and was spurred by parents
at Meridian Elementary who wrote letters to the city pushing for the
change.

The changes also contain provisions that would apply to medical
marijuana dispensaries should City Council decide to allow them after
a 180-day moratorium expires. The moratorium also was approved Tuesday.

One provision would tax marijuana paraphernalia such as pipes and
vaporizers.

More troublesome to some council members was a provision that would
have prevented the city from issuing a sales tax license to "a
business which engages or proposes to engage in transactions that are
prohibited by local, state or federal law."

That would in effect prohibit the city from licensing medical
marijuana dispensaries because federal law makes marijuana use
illegal, Councilman Kevin Jacobs said.

"We are effectively making a decision right now that we will not allow
dispensaries," Jacobs said. "That's not what my intent was in
supporting the moratorium."

The provision requiring businesses comply with federal law was
removed. If City Council wants to put it back into the code it could
do so after a policy is decided on medical marijuana providers,
Tuthill said.