Nick Mollé and the Rocky Mountain Channel have produced a second episode in “Building Community,” a new docuseries highlighting how additional lodging taxes levied for overnight stays in the Estes Valley are being used to increase housing and access to childcare for the area’s workforce.
This episode features Christy DeLorme, owner of Mountain Top Childcare, which provides care for 40 children. The preschool’s future was in jeopardy when the property she leases faced being sold and potentially turned into a storage facility.
The Town used funds from the 6E lodging tax to purchase the property so it could remain as a childcare facility.
“For years, families in Estes Park have struggled to find available and affordable childcare,” said DeLorme, who has operated the preschool since 2018. “Childcare is absolutely essential. Housing is absolutely essential. If we don’t have those things, we can’t grow, we can’t sustain this beautiful community we have.”
Estes Park has long been considered a childcare desert, with demand for childcare exceeding the number of available openings in preschools and in-home settings.
In 2022, the Colorado legislature passed HB22-1117, which expanded the allowable uses of the revenue from a local marketing district’s marketing and promotion tax and a county’s lodging tax to include
- housing and childcare for the tourism-related workforce, including seasonal workers, and for other workers in the community:
- facilitating and enhancing visitors’ experiences, and
- capital expenditures related to these new purposes.
After Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill on March 31, Visit Estes Park organized a study committee of 30 business owners and community members that met between May and August to analyze whether increasing the local lodging tax would be the right move for the Estes Valley.
The consensus of the committee was that the funds were needed and that voters would support a ballot initiative.
“The tax you don’t pay,” an information and issue advocacy campaign was launched in August and in November, 61% of voters in the Estes Valley approved the 6E ballot measure which increased the bed tax from 2% to 5.5% with the additional 3.5% dedicated to support workforce housing and childcare.
Over the past two years, the additional tax revenue has provided more than $5 million to underwrite and expand workforce housing and childcare.
The money is received by Visit Estes Park, which has statutory taxing authority, and then transferred to the Town of Estes Park, which administers the funding for childcare. In July 2023, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Estes Park Housing Authority to oversee the distribution of the funding for workforce housing.
Based on an income scale, funds can help parents pay for childcare, provide education and training for childcare providers, and assist people who want to become licensed in-home childcare providers.
Produced in partnership with Visit Estes Park, the new episode of “Building Community” premieres tomorrow evening, April 18, at 7 p.m. on the Rocky Mountain Channel (channels 8 and 108), and will also be available for streaming.
For more information about the lodging tax extension and the 6E ballot initiative, click here.