SCFD – An Economic Powerhouse

Mayor Hancock at CATZ HQ
for Mayors Launch SCFD GOTV,
Oct. 4, 2016

The metro area’s cultural Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) is one of the nation’s unique, intergovernmental special districts. The SCFD is a tax authority that operates with minimal government overhead and maximum fiscal benefit for residents. It is considered a national model of regional funding cooperation.

In 1991, shortly after the District was established (1989), Deloitte Consulting conducted an economic impact and activity study of the arts. Our firm produced the first report and A.B. Hirschfield Press provided the printing. Since then, a similar study sponsored by the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts has been conducted every two years, with the latest report just being released and covering data from 2015.

As the following table shows, the growth in attendance (90%), now 13.9 million, and outreach to children (254% increase), now 3.9 million, has been nothing short of spectacular. It’s one of the primary reasons the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just cited the state, and especially the metro region, as one of the country’s leading areas for cultural attendance. In terms of economic impact, the study shows $1.8 billion in economic activity is generated yearly from the arts (290% increase from 1992), and it provides more than 10,700 jobs.

The District has been supported by four legislatures (1987, 1994, 2004 and 2016), and by voters in three elections, most recently approving the SCFD’s renewal by 66 percent (2004).

The SCFD renewal will be Ballot Issue 4B, located near the end of the long 2016 Colorado ballot. It will read:

DENVER METROPOLITAN SCIENTIFIC CULTURAL FACILITIES DISTRICT (SCFD) BALLOT ISSUE 4B:

SHALL THERE BE AN EXTENSION UNTIL JUNE 30, 2030, OF THE AGGREGATE 0.1 PERCENT SALES AND USE TAXES CURRENTLY LEVIED AND COLLECTED BY THE DENVER METROPOLITAN SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL FACILITIES DISTRICT THAT ARE SCHEDULED TO EXPIRE ON JUNE 30, 2018, FOR ASSISTING SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL FACILITIES WITHIN THE DISTRICT…

Please vote to renew the SCFD and keep Colorado’s acclaimed program of culture for all in place for another 12 years.

CATZ President Jim Harrington at the
Mayors Launch SCFD GOTV, Oct. 4, 2016

Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan,
Greenwood Village Mayor Ron Rakowsky and Denver
Mayor Michael Hancock with Popsicle at Mayors
Launch SCFD GOTV, Oct. 4, 2016

See:
Denver Post: SCFD’s renewal will benefit arts and culture (and my guilty conscience)
Denver Business Journal: Metro Denver’s culture packs a $1.8 billion economic punch
Denver Post: Denver-area arts, culture generated $1.8 billion in 2015, but saw audiences shrink