About Home Rule
About the Castle Pines Home Rule Charter
The Charter is a community’s “constitution” and most important guiding document. The City’s Charter outlines the following:
- Structure and organization of government
- Business procedures to be followed by municipal government
- Powers and limitations of municipal officials and agencies
The Charter cannot be easily amended, so great care has gone into drafting it.
Under Home Rule, Castle Pines residents are given greater authority to create laws that meet the needs and expectations of the community.
Home Rule Charter Commission Adopts Draft Charter
On January 30, the Home Rule Charter voted in favor of adopting the draft Charter. View the adopted Home Rule Charter online.
Home Rule Charter Summary
Are you interested in a simplified breakdown of each Article in the Charter? This handy spreadsheet is intended to better explain what each section of the Charter really means.
Home Rule Charter Commission Presentation to City Council
The Charter Commission presented the adopted Charter to City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Residents can watch the full presentation online.
Important Dates
- City Council urges a "Yes" vote on April 9 in support of the Home Rule Charter Election via Resolution 19-17
- May 14, 2019 - Election Day
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Share your thoughts about Home Rule and the Home Rule process, here.View All Ideas11 days ago
Sales tax - state vs. local collection
As the first elected treasurer of the City, my experience is based on the local perspective. Have as much local control over sales tax is a good thing for several reasons. First, in terms of Colorado municipalities, Castle Pines is not that small. Colorado has 271 municipalities and Castle Pines ranks about 37 or in the top 15%. With the growth coming from The Canyons, Castle Pines will be in the top 25 municipalities by population by 2040 or so. We do have a small government, which is by design, but we do have power over retailers to capture our fair share to support local infrastructure. Second, when I was treasurer we worked with several retailers to collect use taxes even though there was no physical presence in the City. The ability of the business to respond effectively depended not on our size but the retailer's database software. The more sophisticated retailers have GIS databases. For them, it was a minor update to add Castle Pines addresses and remit use tax. All we had to do was ask and provide an address file. The large internet retailers have very robust GIS databases, which are necessary for package delivery. I would like it very much if I ordered groceries for home delivery from the new Whole Foods in Castle Rock that Castle Pines and not Castle Rock would get the sales tax. Having a person of staff locally to make the "ask" is key. Last, as Jefferson said, "The government closest to the people serves the people best." A recent example of our new car purchase illustrates this point. When we signed the papers at the dealer in November, the correct Castle Pines tax was on the contract. The County Clerk, however, initially rejected the title application because Castle Rock sales tax rates were not used. We were able to get the matter straightened out with a few phone calls. How many more of these transactions are there? I would much rather have a person locally to take those concerns to county government in the countywide city managers' meetings than wait for annual reports from the State and hope that a few wrong allocations get fixed.
3 months ago
Opt for State Collection of Sales Tax
With the recent changes (Dec 2018) in the sales tax laws in the wake of the Supreme Court's Wayfair decision, the status quo between State administered and City administered sales tax collection has swung wildly in favor of State collection. We can still elect to be a home rule city but we should continue to elect for State collection of our sales taxes. The changes relate to sales tax sourcing and collection rules, and the result is that State will now enforce the collection of local taxes for state collected jurisdictions (e.g. our City) even if the seller doesn't have a physical presence in the City. This means that going forward the state would collect taxes from remote sellers including out-of-state sellers (e.g. internet vendors) and Colorado sellers with no physical presence in Castle Pines. If we elect City administration we would have to enforce those collections ourselves which seems burdensome and unlikely that a small city like ours would be able to contact out of state vendors who make sales into our city and try to enforce them to pay. The Wayfair decision only applies to States. FYI - There is much misinformation out there regarding the pros and cons of State versus City managed tax collection but please know that since 2011 when the State implemented it's new tax system, when the State collects sales taxes that include state collected local taxes, the local taxes get paid first. At that time they also opened access to return information and auditing/review capability for locals including cities, counties and special districts.
Contact Us
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Phone 303-705-0200 Email communications@castlepinesco.gov
