On two prior occasions, the Colorado Court of Appeals has affirmed that motion picture film reels obtained by commercial movie theaters are subject to municipal use taxes. Now that the technology has changed and most theaters have switched to digital projection, the result is the same. The data file on the hard drive leased to the movie theater remains tangible personal property subject to use taxes, so said the court of appeals on January 2 in a case arising out of the City of Aurora. As in the earlier cases, the court went on to hold that the rental of the digital files by the theaters cannot be viewed as a purchase for resale, nor are the digital files viewed as part of a manufacturing process. Finally, there is no “double-taxation” problem when patrons are charged a sales or admission tax to view the movie. The use tax on the value of the data files is paid by the business. The admissions tax on the privilege of viewing the movie is paid by the customers.

In a February 21 ruling in the ongoing case of Hamer v. City of Trinidad, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nina Wang held for the first time in the Tenth Circuit that municipal sidewalks are among the “public services, programs, or activities” covered by Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Last year in the same case, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that each day a “program, service or activity” remains out of compliance with Title II of the ADA constitutes a “repeated violation,” essentially preventing the statute of limitation from running as long as the violation continues to exist. Hamer v. City of Trinidad, 924 F.3d 1093 (10th Cir. 2019); cert. denied (2019)(CML, with the assistance of the Colorado Springs City Attorney’s Office, participated as amicus in this case).