As mentioned in Part One, we’re often told that talk is cheap… the implication being that ‘action’ is the thing of value.
But talking about the action, before the action is taken, can be terribly important. This applies to romance, business, child-rearing, and government. Not necessarily in that order.
Not many taxpayers attended the joint meeting of the Archuleta County Commissioners and the Town Council, on Tuesday, June 28 at the Ross Aragon Community Center. In fact, you could count them on one hand.
If you disqualified the people who were paid to attend — the two reporters from the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, — and if you disqualified Town staff, and Chamber of Commerce staff, you could count the taxpayers on one finger.
Nevertheless, I’m encouraged that both boards showed up, and talked. We all benefit from hearing another person’s point of view, assuming that we can turn off our own mental noise and actually listen to the other person.
I had the feeling that the staff and elected officials, on Tuesday, were listening to one another.
Here are the four key topics that got talked about:
I. ALTERNATIVE REVENUE SOURCES AND POSSIBLE SALES TAX INCREASE
II. LANDFILL/RECYCLING/TRANSFER STATION
III. UPDATE ON COUNTY COURTHOUSE PROPERTY
IV. WORKFORCE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING UPDATES
Based upon the ideas exchanged between the officials of these two governments, I believe the taxpayers will be hearing about some of these topics in the future. Whether we like it or not.
We concluded Part One with a few comments from County Manager Derek Woodman, tossing out — rather casually — the idea that the Town and County could possibly put a sales tax increase in front of the voters at the upcoming November election.
What might this proposed tax be used for? Higher salaries for public employees? Deferred infrastructure maintenance? More government buildings? Development of recreation facilities? Workforce housing?
No consensus emerged from the conversation, as to the use… nor as to why, exactly, the taxpayers would eagerly approve a sales tax increase. But the two boards spent half an hour kicking the idea around.
A couple of attempts were made to raise questions about Mr. Woodman’s sales tax suggestion. Council member Matt DeGuise noted that raising our local County sales tax from 4% to 5% would result in Archuleta County having the highest sales tax of any comparable Colorado county. (We actually pay a total 6.9% sales tax here, when you include the 2.9% state sales tax.)
Sales tax is a complicated issue in most communities, however. And Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County have their own tax complications.
But when you’re sitting around a conference table in the evening, talking… something like “a one=percent sales tax hike” can seem seductively simple.
So let’s head, briefly, into the Sales Tax Jungle.
Mr. DeGuise is correct, that a 5% Archuleta County sales tax — if the voters wanted to approve such a thing — would be higher than most Colorado county sales taxes. In fact, our existing 4% sales tax here is already higher than almost any county sales tax in Colorado.
Here are some nearby counties:
La Plata County: 2.0%
Montezuma County: 0.4%
Hinsdale County: 5.0%
San Miguel County: 1.0%
Mineral County: 2.6%
Saguache County: 1.0%
Ouray County: 2.0%
Rio Grande County: 2.6%
Gunnison County: 2.0%
But that’s not the full story, because most Colorado cities and towns have their own additional sales tax rates. Typically, purchasers are paying a state sales tax, plus a county sales tax, plus a municipal sales tax.
For example, compare these rates to what a shopper pays in Pagosa Springs (6.9%):
Durango, total sales tax: 7.9%
Cortez, total sales tax: 7.35%
Silverton, total sales tax: 8.9%
Del Norte, total sales tax: 7.5%
Ouray, total sales tax: 8.9%
Alamosa, total sales tax: 7.9%
Gunnison, total sales tax: 8.9%
For some reason, the Town of Pagosa Springs never instituted its own municipal sales tax, but instead entered into an agreement with Archuleta County to share the County sales tax on a 50/50 split. Effectively, Pagosa Springs receives a 2% sales tax and Archuleta County receives a 2% sales tax.
To make things even more complicated, sales taxes are often restricted in their use. For example, Pagosa Springs must use half of its sales tax revenues for “Capital Projects”. Archuleta County must use half of its sales tax revenues for “Roads”.
If two local governments wanted to approach the voters with a sales tax increase, they would typically dedicate the additional amount to a specific use.
What specific use?
And what are the chances Archuleta County voters would approve a higher sales tax?
We’re listening, here, to Town Council member Brooks Lindner, who — in his previous life as a School Board member — helped to spearhead Ballot Question 5A, the property tax increase successfully won by Archuleta School District in 2018. The increase was proposed to last seven years.
“That mill levy increase will sunset in 2025. So it will probably be on the ballot again, just to continue that. And my guess is, that it will pass…
“I co-chaired that campaign, and that was the first tax increase to pass in Archuleta County in over ten years…”
(Actually, I believe it was at least 20 years since any previous local tax increase, and that one would have been to build a new high school.)
Mr. Lindner:
“And I’m totally open to this idea. But my biggest concern is that we’re way behind the ball, in terms of time, to get it on the ballot in November. Now… this November would be great, because it’s a mid-term election, so we will have a great turnout. But first of all, for all of us to figure out what we want it to go toward, get all that language figured out, promote it and get movement behind it?
“We would need a lot of meetings, and there’s just not a lot of time. For the one we did for the School District, we started two years ahead of time. We did polling, and we kind of had a trigger point… but when it came to February [before the November election] we still felt like we didn’t have enough time… But we went for it, anyway, and it happened.
“But that would be my biggest concern…”
Archuleta County has been notoriously unsuccessful at getting tax measures passed. Possibly — in part — because they’ve never taken two years to get the public behind their efforts.
Possibly — in part — because the County hasn’t made an effort to find out what the community really wants.
Possibly – in part – because a sales tax is considered a regressive tax, that hurts the poorest members of the community most?