Denver Businesses Brace for Tax Hikes After Kiros Ousts 15-Term Incumbent in Primary
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 15
Denver Businesses Brace for Tax Hikes After Kiros Ousts 15-Term Incumbent in Primary
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 15
Summary
Denver business leaders say Melat Kiros’s June primary win has sharpened fears that DSA-backed policies could raise corporate taxes, labor costs and regulation in a city already struggling with affordability.
J.J. Ament of the Denver Metro Chamber said Colorado’s shift under single-party Democratic control has made it harder to operate, citing higher fees, taxes and rules, while arguing minimum-wage mandates have hurt some small businesses.
South Broadway auto shop manager Brad Deen said crime, drug use and encampments have become such a burden that businesses approved an extra mill levy to fund private security and cleanup crews, despite his usual opposition to tax increases.
Café owner Jamie Sanchez described a separate pressure point: rising rent and wages alongside recurring protests over his ministry’s views on sexuality, leaving him worried that socialist-aligned politics could further strain small businesses.
Kiros has denied being a communist and cast her platform as economic populism, but her upset over 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette has become a flashpoint in Denver’s broader debate over free enterprise, public order and affordability.
As security costs and strict regulations squeeze Denver's local shops, will the push for worker equity accidentally drive small businesses to extinction?
Could Denver's aggressive new labor and AI compliance laws become the breaking point for hospitality venues already surviving on razor-thin margins?
When local businesses must tax themselves to clean streets and hire guards, has the city fundamentally failed its most basic civic duties?