Centennial 1% sales and use tax for public works

Vote YES on 2A to protect Centennial’s quality of life and Keep Centennial Moving! For 25 years, Centennial has demonstrated that local government can be efficient, innovative, and fiscally responsible. The City operates with a lean municipal staff, relies extensively on competitive contracting and private-sector expertise, carries no municipal debt, and has earned national recognition as a safe, well-managed, and desirable community. Responsible government also means addressing foreseeable problems before they become crises. Centennial’s transportation infrastructure is aging. The City maintains hundreds of miles of streets, dozens of bridges, and more than 90 traffic signals. Most of this infrastructure is decades old. Maintaining and improving our transportation system costs Centennial approximately $35 million annually, but the City receives only about $15 million in revenue dedicated for those purposes. The difference is currently being filled from the General Fund — an approach that competes with other City services and cannot continue indefinitely. Ballot Issue 2A provides a long-term solution.The City funds its priorities and meets the needs of its citizens primarily using revenue generated by a 2.5% sales tax – a rate which has not been increased in over 20 years. 2A increases Centennial’s sales and use tax by 1%, or $1 on a $100 taxable purchase. Groceries for home consumption, gasoline, and prescription drugs remain exempt. Even with the increase, Centennial’s sales-tax rate at 3.5% would still be lower than neighboring cities including Denver (5.15%), Littleton (3.75%) and Aurora (3.75%). If 2A passes, our sales tax rate would be less than the 3.63% metro area average. Unlike property tax, sales tax ensures the cost of maintaining Centennial’s transportation system is shared among the many visitors, commuters and shoppers who use City roads every day. The additional revenue from 2A will be dedicated to traffic safety, roads, bridges, sidewalks, and pedestrian access improvements, as well as road infrastructure projects identified in the City’s Transportation Master Plan. CITY OF CENTENNIAL Acting now allows Centennial to address projects sooner, respond to rising construction costs, leverage state and federal matching funds, and repair infrastructure before deterioration makes the work substantially more expensive. Taxpayers will be able to see where the money goes. The ballot language requires revenues and related expenditures to be reported through the City’s annual independent audit and published on the City’s website. Some have argued that Centennial already has the money to solve this problem. However, Centennial’s total assets include separate funds that cannot simply be moved to transportation. These funds are legally restricted, committed to specific City priorities, or reserved for other obligations. Available General Fund dollars that can be used for streets are already being transferred to the Street Fund to help close the annual shortfall. Centennial’s founders created a lean, innovative and debt-free city. Ballot Issue 2A provides the resources necessary to protect that model, maintain our infrastructure, and preserve Centennial’s quality of life for the next generation. Let’s Keep Centennial Moving. Please vote YES on 2A!

2A asks you to approve a city tax rate increase from 2.5% to 3.5%, a 40% increase in both the sales and construction use tax rates. People in lower wage brackets, those living paycheck to paycheck, and those on a fixed income will find Centennial even less affordable. Visitors and commuters will pay some of the higher tax rate. One way to estimate the impact on you is to divide the expected $27 million in additional annual revenue by the city’s population of about 108,000 to get a per-capita cost. Each person in Centennial could pay an estimated $250 more in sales taxes each year. If you buy a car or other large items like furniture, the amount might be higher. The second tax in 2A is a construction use tax. The construction use tax applies to construction materials used when you remodel your kitchen or repair your hail-damaged roof. Builders constructing single-family homes and apartment complexes also pay it, with some of that cost showing up in higher housing prices and higher rent. Does the city need the money to maintain our roads? For the past decade, after paying all bills, the city has ended each year with a multimillion-dollar surplus. In 2025, the surplus was nearly $35M. In 2024, the surplus was over $35M. In 2023, the surplus was nearly $38M. Centennial started 2026 with more than $170 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments. Some of that is already committed to projects, including streets. The city has always moved money from the General Fund to the Street Fund. 2A would add a permanent tax whose receipts are locked to streets even if a later emergency needs the money elsewhere. What is the condition of Centennial’s roads? According to the April 14th City Council workshop, our roads are, on average, at the lower end of the city’s “Very Good” classification. Centennial roads are graded as Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, or Poor. Today, Centennial’s 2.5% sales tax is part of the overall 6.75% sales tax you pay on purchases. If this tax increase and other ballot taxes pass (such as the Front Range Train), your aggregate sales tax rate could exceed 8%. 2A’s tax rate increase will hurt affordability, with some of that cost showing up in higher housing prices and higher rent. In an emergency, funds locked into the Street Fund could not be moved to other needs. The city has ended the year in surplus for a decade, already funds streets, and already rates roads Very Good. That is not a funding emergency. Vote no on 2A.