COLORADO, USA — Public Improvement Fees. Those three words appear on a lot of receipts, but it turns out many people aren't sure what they are or what they fund.
"I was curious about, you know, what that is? What does that go to? What does it mean? And really, what kind of information I could get? No one in the store could really answer my question," Holly Teska said. "So naturally, what I do, I went and made a TikTok about it, see if other people would have the same experience."
Teska lives in the Belmar area of Lakewood. Her post about a shopping trip to Target there and the Public Improvements Fees (PIFs) on her receipt is her most viewed post. In her case, the PIF was 2.5% per item.
She had never heard of PIFs but knows all about them now and noticed that Target isn't alone in charging them.
"Now that I live in this area of Belmar, I've noticed that they do add it to almost all the businesses," Teska said. "There's a Whole Foods here, I've noticed that they have this, they have this fee, too."
Steve On Your Side wondered how widespread the PIFs were around the Denver metro area. So for the first time ever, Steve went undercover shopping at a couple of different Target stores.
He found PIFs added to his bill at a store at River Point in Sheridan. The 1% fee added an extra 2 cents to his Coke. At the Colorado Mills Mall, the PIF tacked an extra 3 cents onto his beverage purchase.
So what is a PIF?
"A public improvement fee is just like a tax. But it's not a tax. It's a privately imposed fee, which is imposed through a covenant," said Jeff Peshut, who is an assistant professor at Metro State University of Denver and a real estate lawyer.
"The goal is to help finance improvements on the property. It's another financing vehicle for the developer."
RELATED: Here are the top 10 spots drivers are getting toll lane weaving tickets on Colorado interstates
Covenants are imposed against properties by the developer and typically retailers, restaurants, or service providers who lease space on the property are obligated to pay it, Peshut explained.
In some cases, it helps pay off debts. In other cases, it pays for stuff like roads and parking lots. To truly understand that financing method, you need to understand another acronym.
"The name of the game is OPM," Peshut said.
"The goal of developers is to use as much other people's money, or OPM, and as little of their own as possible to develop the property," Preshut said.
Steve On Your Side wanted to know where developers are getting other people's money through PIFs, but quickly found there was no master list of where PIFs are charged in Colorado. We decided to make our own. You can check it out below.
> Help us build the most comprehensive map of PIFs in Colorado, Check your receipts and share your PIFs with Steve on Your Side by emailing them to SteveOnYourSide@9news.com
"You can check with the clerk and recorder's office and look up. But I mean, that's a science project, right?" Preshut said.
Some cities post their PIFs, but usually, you don't find out until after you've paid. And even then, understanding the math at the bottom of the bill can be tough.
"Most developments will publish or post somewhere on their property that this property charges public improvement fees, but those are usually pretty discreet. You know, there's not a big billboard as you pull up to the property.
"The other place that you could find out about them, is many municipalities have a page on their website, where they specifically state that here are projects in our jurisdiction that charge public improvement fees," Preshut said.
"If we're going to be taxed and fee-d on all of our purchases, I think it's only right that we all know what it goes to," Teska said.
> Help us build the most comprehensive map of PIFs in Colorado, Check your receipts and share your PIFs with Steve on Your Side by emailing them to SteveOnYourSide@9news.com