Pagosa Springs fielded its July Fourth parade yesterday, and almost the entire crowd somehow ended up dressed in the same three colors. How that happened, I have no idea.
It’s rare for all of Pagosa to agree on something.
Politics, not so much agreement there.
The Russians have been in the news lately, so maybe this is a good time to share a quote from a rather famous Russian: Leo Tolstoy. After achieving international fame with novels like War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy became disenchanted with riches and fame, and with fictional stories, and began writing about philosophy and politics.
In 1879, he published A Confession, which dealt with his struggle to understand the meaning of life, having been raised Russian Orthodox and having later rejected the authority of the Church. He also concluded that governments tend to become oppressive, and tend to favor the rich.
Here’s a quote from that book:
With my own self, this belief assumed the form that it usually takes among the education men of our time. The belief was expressed in the word, ‘progress’. At the time, I felt that this word had some meaning. Living as I was then, like any individual I was tormented by the problem of how to live a better life. I did not yet understand that in answering ‘live in conformity with progress’, I was speaking exactly like a person who is in a boat being carried along by wind and waves and who, when asked the most important and vital question, ‘Where should I steer?’, avoids answering by saying, ‘We are being carried somewhere.’
Possibly, some Daily Post readers have felt this way. That we are being carried somewhere.
This editorial series — about elected leaders, talking — was inspired by the joint meeting between the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners and the Pagosa Springs Tow2n Council, held on the evening of June 28. Also participating in the conversation were Town Manager Andrea Phillips and County Manager Derek Woodman. The topics on the agenda, as mentioned previously, were these:
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 UPDATE
Talking about these timely topics, in a public meeting, can’t be a bad thing. It can help to share opinions and ideas with other people who are thinking about the same problems. We can tend to get stuck in our own thoughts, in our own beliefs and prejudices, and a healthy conversation — about, for example, ‘progress’ — can be a fruitful exercise.
If we can actually listen… and hear what the other person is saying…
Near the conclusion of the June 28 conversation, about placing a proposed sales tax increase on the November ballot, Council member Gary Williams posed a question.
“Do we want to have any kind of communications plan, before this is done? To kind of get the ideas out there? You know, when you do something like this, it’s good if people are talking about it, and ideas are floating around. Like, wouldn’t it be nice to have a hockey rink? That actually had ice in it?”
Council member Brooks Lindner responded.
“Well, that’s why I think we’re behind the curve on this. For November, anyway. Because, ideally, you would do a whole series of community meetings, to try and get that feedback, find out what the people really want to see. And also, get them having a voice in it, so that they have ‘buy-in’. Lots of meetings. Lots of writing about it.
“Talking to the people takes a lot of time.”
Gary Williams:
“We’re in a period where inflation has got people’s attention, and so… that…”
Ah, yes. Inflation. Ordinary things seem to be increasing in cost, for no easily understandable reason. Food. Gas. Housing. Government.
How would the voters — who already donate 6.9% of nearly every purchase to state and local government — feel about increasing the local sales tax, in 2022?
I mentioned, in Part Three on Friday, that the cost of local government has increased somewhat over the past decade. I think those dollar amounts bear repeating.
The Town of Pagosa Springs collected $7.4 million from various revenue sources in 2010. In 2020, without establishing any new taxes and without any tax rate increases, the Town collected $19.8 million. According to my pocket calculator, that amounts to revenue growth of 268%.
The County government didn’t see its revenues grow in quite the same way, between 2010 and 2020. Their appropriations increased by only 169%… from $22.8 million in 2010, to $38.5 million in 2020.
During that same decade, the population of Archuleta County grew by only 12%.
But in spite of this inflationary trend in local government, ten elected leaders sat around a conference table together and agreed that a sales tax increase was probably a good thing, because… well, because governments always need more money than they have. During the 30-minute discussion about the proposed sales tax increase, I didn’t hear anyone at the table question the wisdom of bigger and bigger government.
Near the end of the verbal exchange, and before moving to the next agenda item, Mayor Shari Pierce summarized the tax discussion.
“So, I’m kind of hearing that each board goes their separate ways, and we come back to our next meeting with our lists [of what a tax increase might be spent on] and we have another discussion before we engage with anyone.”
The Mayor is here referring to the suggestion by County Manager Woodman, to possibly ‘engage’ Boulder, Colorado-based Magellan Strategies to survey our community and find out whether the voters might approve a one-percent sales tax increase.
We understand that our local elected leaders, looking around and hearing from constituents, perceive the same problems that we all perceive. But they might prioritize solutions differently from how the editor of a small online community magazine would prioritize them.
Specifically, they might view “the lack of a recreation taxing district” to be a serious problem.
The Town and the County have been talking, together, about the formation of a ‘recreation district’ for at least a couple of decades now. As things stand at the moment, the Town of Pagosa Springs funds and administers nearly all of the government-sponsored recreation activities and venues in Archuleta County, with the obvious exception of the recreational activities and venues administered by the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA) and the activities handled by private businesses — e.g. the Pagosa Golf Club, Wyndham Resorts, rafting outfitters, the Pickleball Club, and so on.
The County government budgets almost no money for recreation, by comparison.
Some Colorado communities have established a ‘recreation district’ that collects taxes independent of the town or county, and then maintains and runs recreational activities and venues within the district.
Several years back, the County Commissioners placed three questions on a November ballot — about recreation. The questions were merely advisory. No new taxes were created. The BOCC wanted to hear ‘public opinion’ without creating any commitments. The BOCC suspected that the community wanted a recreation district.
As I recall, the election results were clear. The community was generally in favor of a recreation district. But they also clearly stated that they didn’t want to pay for it.
The BOCC listened to the voters, and stopped pushing the idea of forming a recreation district. Probably a smart move.
But during the June 28 conversation about sales tax increases, the need for more recreation facilities and more recreation spending kept popping up as one of the priority needs in our community.