This summer, Steve On Your Side went on a scavenger hunt – buying Coca-Cola at stores across the metro area to see if we’d get charged a fee a lot of consumers don’t understand. The Public Improvement Fee, or PIF, is not a tax or a government-imposed fee. It is a private fee charged by developers at some shopping complexes across the state. The fee is intended to help pay for upkeep of the property – like landscaping, paving the parking lot or keeping up internal roads inside the designated areas. Some developers use the PIF to finance debt from building a project. PIFs are charged before sales tax and often don’t exempt food products like sales taxes do. There is no list of where PIFs are charged across the state since they are private fees often only disclosed in a covenant agreement recorded with the county. So Steve On Your Side asked viewers to be on the lookout for PIFs. Read more: https://www.9news.com/article/money/consumer/steve-on-your-side/crowdsourced-map-of-public-improvement-fees/73-ce0ca9b4-4ffb-472b-aa0e-2296f2e0c0ed ----- More local videos here: https://youtube.com/@9news Subscribe to NEXT: https://youtube.com/@Nexton9NEWS Stay connected: 9NEWS Website: https://www.9news.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilike9news Twitter: https://twitter.com/9NEWS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/9newsdenver/ Download the 9NEWS App: https://www.9news.com/appredirect/ Sign up for the 9NEWSLETTER: https://www.9news.com/email 9NEWS (KUSA) is located in Denver, Colorado.