Here’s the sales pitch we heard for Proposition 110, from one of the CDOT staff and consultants presenting at the Ross Aragon Community Center on Tuesday evening, September 25:
“The funding [from the proposed .62 percent state sales tax increase] would be split up between the state — that’s CDOT — and the local governments. So the Town of Pagosa Springs, and Archuleta County; they would both see benefits out of Proposition 110 if it should pass.
“So if Proposition 110 passes, 45 percent comes to CDOT, of that funding, and in Year One [CDOT] is projected to receive a revenue of $345 million. Local governments would receive about $306 million.
“Pagosa Springs — if Proposition 110 passes — would receive an additional $85,000 [in the first year.] This is above and beyond the funding that Pagosa Springs already gets out of the state gas tax.
“Archuleta County would get just over $1.5 million, additional dollars that they don’t currently get, to fund transportation or other projects that they need to fund.”
20 percent of the new sales tax revenues would go to municipalities, and 20 percent would go to county governments. Then we have the combined City and County of Denver, Colorado.
The City of Denver would get $846 million — about 20 percent of the total — during the 20 years of the tax increase.
You can download the CDOT estimates of city and town revenues here.
You can download the CDOT estimates of county revenues here.
As we might guess, a number of Colorado mayors and county commissioners have come out in support of Proposition 110.
But the proposition not only increases the state sales tax from 2.9 percent to 3.52 percent — it also allows the state to increase CDOT debts by $6 billion, with a maximum repayment cost of $9.4 billion. (Meaning, of course, that investors will make off with $3.4 billion in taxpayer funds.)
The CDOT folks, speaking on Tuesday evening at the Community Center, suggested that the proposed reconstruction of the downtown stretch of Highway 160 might begin as early as 2020 — if the voters approve Proposition 110. Without the new debt created by Proposition 110, the reconstruction project might be delayed.
Following the Tuesday evening sales pitch for Proposition 110, the visiting consultants invited a few questions from the audience about their plans to re-design Highway 160 through Pagosa’s downtown core. Several residents expressed concern about the suggestion that, within the next ten years, CDOT would need to further re-design the downtown stretch — and might, at that future date, decide to eliminate on-street parking in the core commercial area. On-street parking might eventually be incompatible with the proposed raised medians, we were told.
Town Planning Director James Dickhoff spoke in support of the raised medians, however, because they would contribute to “better drainage.” Mr. Dickhoff suggested that parking alternatives could be developed, but didn’t mention any particular locations for said parking.
The audience also had concern about snow removal. In the downtown core, CDOT snow plows currently leave the snow stacked in high berms in the middle of the highway, to be removed by Town street crews. The snow cannot be plowed off the sides of the highway, of course, because the street is lined with commercial businesses on both sides. But this routine would become impossible, practically speaking, if raised medians were to be installed.
Our CDOT representative spoke matter-of-factly: “If we put the median strips in, that takes away from the snow storage in the middle of the highway. Our maintenance crews have told us that basically they would push [the snow] out towards the existing parking.” Town crews would then be responsible for removing the snow from the parking spaces.
Mr. Dickhoff stated that the Town would coordinate the snow removal with CDOT. The audience member then noted that, typically, the plowed snow stored in the middle of the highway remains there for several days following a snow event. Would the plowed snow pushed into the parking areas then remain, for several days?
One member of the audience asked if the consultants had a dollar figure in mind, for the reconstruction ideas shown in the twelve-foot map that had been taped to the wall of the South Conference Room.
That question seemed to cause some whispered confusion among the CDOT folks.
“Was it, like, $5 million?”
“No, I think it was more like $10 million.”
“So I’m hearing anywhere between $10 and $12 million.”
An audience member asked, “How much of that $12 million would the Town government be expected to contribute?”
The CDOT representatives were not sure. But if Proposition 110 passes, well… the Town would have that extra $85,000.
This past spring, the Colorado General Assembly passed SB1, which placed Proposition 109 on the November ballot. Proposition 109 is also aimed at transportation issues, but does not raise taxes. It, instead, allows CDOT to go $3.5 billion in debt so that we can pay for additional (necessary) highway work by taking money away from other state government needs.
But as I understand it, Proposition 109 disappears, if the voters approve Proposition 110.
Here in Pagosa Springs, we have several chances to increase our taxes in November. Our local school district would like an extra $1.7 million per year — an increase of about 25 percent more than what we now pay locally for schools.
The Archuleta County government would like to increase their sales tax collection from 2 percent to 3 percent to fund as-yet-undefined “Justice System Capital Improvements.” That’s obviously a 50 percent increase in the County sales tax rate.
CDOT would like to see a .63 percent state sales tax increase, via Proposition 110, to fund transportation. That’s a 20 percent bump in the state sales tax.
The supporters of Amendment 73 want to increase school funding statewide by removing the TABOR restrictions on school property taxes, and by increasing incomes taxes for wealthy Coloradans. It appears that, without the passage of Amendment 73, TABOR rules would drop residential property taxes below the 7 percent required by Amendment 73. Amendment 73 also requires the legislature to increase school funding every year, at the rate of inflation, regardless of overall state budget limitations.
But maybe, with increased education funding and bigger jails, we won’t need those parking spaces downtown.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.