Spearheaded repeal of the Lakewood grocery tax in 2009.
Text shown on the article (left) by Jennifer Gilbert on Colorado Community Media, March 2008:
The grocery food committee learned from Dorr that repealing the food tax could adversely affect Lakewood’s bond status because it could change the tax base. Menten threw in another cog when she presented the committee with a petition to repeal the tax on groceries.
The petition, which Menten will attempt to get on the November ballot, would lower the tax to 1 percent on groceries in 2009 and eliminate it in 2010 if made into law.
Fellow members of the committee were disappointed to learn Menten was predisposed to repeal the tax and would continue on that track regardless of the committee’s recommendation.
I believe grocery taxes are regressive and harmful, even when I’m not directly impacted. Sales tax on food should be eliminated completely.
In 2018, I dedicated volunteer time to helping Longmont residents attempt to get a grocery tax repeal on their local ballot. One of those unforgettable adventures which turned into being threatened with a trespassing ticket from Longmont PD. Especially memorable because we were gathering these petition signatures on July 4th.
The Longmont city attorney later apologized for the infringement on our right to petition.
Text shown on the article (left) by John Fryar on Longmont Times, July 6, 2018:
Supporters of a proposal to ask Longmont voters to end the city’s sales tax on groceries can resume circulating their ballot initiative petitions outside at the Village at the Peaks shopping center, they learned Friday.
On Wednesday evening, an Allied Universal security officer told a pair of signature gatherers, Natalie Menten and Sarah Levison, that they were trespassing and had to leave Village at the Peaks or be ticketed.
Menten wrote in a Thursday email to Longmont City Attorney Eugene Mei that she and Levison, a former city councilwoman, were on the sidewalk in front of Regal Cinemas, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and Marco’s Pizza at the Shopping center in the 1200 block of South Hover Street.
The mall’s security staff contacted police, several officers showed up, and they told the two petition circulators they could be ticketed for trespassing if they did not leave Village at the Peals, Menten wrote in her email – a copy of which was provided to the Times-Call by Paul Tiger, an organizer of UnTax Food, the group advocating ending the grocery sales tax with a November ballot initiative.
No tickets were issued after police warned the circulators.
Menten, however, wrote Mei that “I believe I was harrassed and my First Amendment rights were restricted by police threats of arrest for trespassing at Village at the Peaks mall. I have suffered harm from this incident.”
Menten said in a Friday interview, ” I am thrilled that I will be able to go back up to Village at the Peaks and continue to petition to remove Longmont’s tax in groceries.”
Jefferson County still collects sales tax on groceries, unfortunately, but that could be changed with the right county commissioners in office.
https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/2008/03/06/the-food-tax-fight