As Marshall Fire victims struggle to scrape together enough money to rebuild, the state, Boulder County, City of Louisville and RTD will all see a tax windfall from the disaster. Together, they will receive some $20 million in use taxes, which are taxes applied to materials and appliances used to build or, in the case of fire victims, rebuild homes.
It’s tax revenue that homeowners say governments didn’t expect before the disaster and should now refund.
Marshall Together and Superior Rising, organizations made up of fire victims, are now asking for a waiver or refund of use taxes. Of the nearly 1,100 homes destroyed in the Marshall Fire, only about 90 have enough insurance to rebuild.
“People are cobbling dollar by dollar how to do this,” said Tawnya Samauroo, whose home in Louisville was among those burned. Because of factors out of homeowners control, like inflation, the cost to rebuild has skyrocketed.
Samauroo says it will take $840,000 to replace her 1,700 square foot home even though she’s downgrading some things.
That’s an obscene price for a downgraded house of that size, but on top of recent inflation, we’ve been getting Californicated here for a long time.