The spooky season isn’t even months away, but one Colorado flight attendant is still scared to jump.
Holly Teska, aka @hollyintheclouds on TikTok, recently posted a one-minute video describing her own nightmare at Target: a “general improvement fee” that’s nowhere near 2.5% on her bill. Per item, remember. Treating dogs. Under the pajama. Per. Single. Item.
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He shared a photo of the receipt for the item totaling $114.57. The math is probably easy because a 2.5% PIF should equal $2.86. But PIF in one will be hit by Colorado’s 2.9% sales tax, which is very confusing except for those standing in line next to accountants.
To coin a phrase, Teska sounds PIF.
“It’s out of control now,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why not a sales tax? … “Target, Target, Target, I need answers!” In case Target CEO Brian Cornell didn’t hear, he whispered in the last seconds of the video: “I need answers!”
Under normal circumstances, Teska wants to stake out the State Capitol in Denver. But they will be looking in the wrong place. It turns out that PIF is a tax that isn’t a tax – it’s something else.
PIF plot thickens
The news about Teska’s TikTok caught the attention of Steve Staeger, aka Steve On Your Side, a consumer advocate reporter at Denver’s NBC affiliate, KUSA-TV Ch. 9. The 16-time Emmy winner set up a so-called “undercover” investigation across the Denver area, buying a 20-oz. bottles of Coke (subbed out for San Pellegrino mineral water at the local Whole Foods, natch).
It’s safe to assume he meant the words as a joke. But given the small 12-point type for “General Improvement Fee” on the crinkly receipt, undercover might be an understatement. In fact, Staeger also called PIF a “mystery.” In some stores, the PIF is down to 1.5%. Aren’t local costs supposed to be consistent?
His 9News story ran concurrently on YouTube, where it garnered 1 million views in eight days. In it, he spoke with Jeff Peshut, a real estate attorney and assistant professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, who explained that property owners and developers apply PIF to make physical improvements to real assets. They can be used to pave the parking lot – or protect vehicles from other types, as in financing arrangements, Peshut explained.
And yes, it’s all legal. Colorado has PIFs for more than twenty years, with some arguing they make infrastructure improvements that malls and the like from down to blight can.
But names be damned, PIFs are not the most common; funds into the developer’s pocket. “It’s another funding vehicle,” says Peshut, who offers a more apt label for the acronym: “privately imposed costs.” In the alphabet soup of land deals, he added that developers care most about using PIF as OPM: other people’s money.
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Is PIF somewhere else?
The PIF as described in this article is unique to the Centennial State; you won’t find it in a book anywhere in America. There are some common law equivalents that protect private financial interests but are based more on political intrigue.
In Chicago, the controversial 2008 deal ramrodded through the city council by former Mayor Richard M. Daley sold 36,000 parking meters to Morgan Stanley for more than $ 1 billion; today, the public employee who writes tickets is essentially paid to protect the pocketbooks of private owners, now known as Chicago Parking Meter LLC. (Three years later, Daley worked with the law firm that negotiated the deal.)
Back in Colorado, the folks who built and run the Lakewood Target that started the PIF kerfuffle might want to read the comments on Teska’s video: all 3,000-plus of them. Some suggested boycotting shops, while others pointed to the insanity of piling PIF on top of inflationary price increases.
Then again, these mercantile captains may not give credit. But at least Teska has an answer now.
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This article provides information only and should not be considered advice. This is provided without warranty of any kind.
