The freedom to vote is considered one of the most important freedoms in America.
The right to vote was originally restricted to only a few. It took the civil war and amendments to the US Constitution to broaden eligibility to vote to include women and black citizens. Why then did the Town of Pagosa Springs have a recent meeting where the major topic was how to prevent the voters of the Town from being able to vote on projects approved by their new Urban Renewal Authority (URA)?
The URA, dominated by members of the Town Council, currently has no limits on how much money they can spend — and it is not just the Town’s money. The money would be diverted from every governmental agency in Archuleta County to help subsidize developers. Currently it appears that the URA source of revenue would target our School District for the largest share of the money.
To date no project has been approved by the Town’s URA. Before the downturn in our economy caused by the virus, there were several presentations regarding a project to develop property owned by the parent company of the Springs Hotel and a land developer that owns the property south of the Hotel. The taxpayers of Archuleta County according to the presentation made by the proposed developer would over 25 years pay for about 40% of the costs of the project amounting to about $79 million.
Recently, sufficient numbers of the Town’s voters presented a petition to require the URA to present all proposals that exceed $1 million in tax incentives for voter approval. This proposal will be voted on in an election scheduled for July 14. The Colorado Supreme Court has approved the use of “Certificates of Participation” — a method of avoiding TABOR’s requirement that all long-term debt be approved by the voters. Archuleta County, for example, funded their new jail by the method of “Certificates of Participation” after failing in two elections to secure voter approval.
The voter participation requirements proposed by Ballot Question A in the upcoming Town election may be the only method for voters to control the amount of spending by the URA.
If anyone tells you that the projects to be financed by the URA will not cost the taxpayers any money… remember what the famous economist Milton Freeman said: “There is no such thing as a free lunch!”
Bruce Dryburgh
Pagosa Springs, CO