The photo above portrays some of the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation directors, as displayed on the PSCDC website. More about the PSCDC in a moment.
As mentioned previously in this editorial series, the sales tax burden in Archuleta County — and in Colorado as a whole — changed rather dramatically following the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v Wayfair Inc. That decision confirmed the right of local and state governments to collect sales tax from consumers making online purchases, when the purchases were delivered to the consumer’s home address within a taxing district.
In 2018, Archuleta County had collected sales taxes totaling about $10.2 million, which was shared 50/50 with the Town government.
This year, mainly as a result of the Wayfair decision, Archuleta County expects to collect $17.6 million in sales tax receipts, again shared 50/50 with the Town.
As mentioned previously, that is a 75% increase in government sales taxes collected locally.
But that 75% increase was not fully satisfying, to our three County Commissioners. On Tuesday, the commissioners voted unanimously to ask the taxpayers to approve an additional 37.5% increase to our local sales tax burden, because — as Commissioner Ronnie Maez reminded us — our population is growing.
True enough. Our local population grew by about 7% since 2018, from about 12,900 to about 13,800. (US Census data.)
The County sales tax collections grew by 75%.
How much bigger does Commissioner Maez think our governments need to grow?
During the commissioners’ discussion of the ballot measure, Commissioner Warren Brown suggested that maybe the sales tax increase ought to be temporary, with a ‘sunset clause’ — rather than perpetual. This would allow the voters to option, in the future, of choosing whether to continue the tax increase, based on the County’s performance.
The other two commissioners — Alvin Schaaf and Ronnie Maez — preferred a perpetual tax increase.
The commissioners have not presented a plan for how the money would be spent, although the ballot measure resolution specifies that at least 50% of the increase would be used for roads.
The commissioners also have not presented a plan for selling this $6.5 million increase to the voters — knowing that the County cannot legally spend taxpayer money to promote a tax increase. But it appears the BOCC will be relying on the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation to fund a $10,000 election campaign.
Some Daily Post readers may be unfamiliar with the PSCDC. So a bit of history.
Back in 2010, the Archuleta Economic Development Association was slowly disintegrating, mainly due to lack of public and business support. The Archuleta County leadership, working hand in hand with the Town leadership, determined that an economic development entity was a valuable community asset, but that it ought to be a new organization… to be funded initially by the Town and County, but ultimately supported mainly by the business community.
Town and County staff put together the paperwork necessary to form an “independent” non-profit corporation, with Town and County representation on its board of directors, and the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation was created.
Did I mention, PSCDC would ultimately be supported mainly by the business community? At least, that was the plan.
And did I mention, the Town and County cannot legally use taxpayer funds to promote a tax increase measure?
Non-profit ‘community development corporations’ exist in many cities and towns, but they are nearly always created with the goal of creating and preserving workforce housing. The PSCDC was created for a very different purpose — ‘economic development’ — presumably because the County and Town leadership thought our housing situation needed little attention. What the community needed, in 2010, was economic diversity. To get off the tourism treadmill. At least, that was the plan.
Twelve years later, the PSCDC has a 2022 budget showing income of slightly less than $866,000. According to my reading of the budget, slightly more than $778,000 was contributed by our Town and County governments,
About $10,000 is expected to come from local business memberships this year
You can download the 2022 PSCDC budget here.
Based upon those numbers, we would be tempted to classify PSCDC, functionally, as an arm of our Town and County governments.
But County Attorney Todd Weaver assured the Town Council, last month, that it was perfectly fine for the Town and County to enlist the PSCDC to direct and fund a pro-tax-increase campaign, because the PSCDC happened to have $10,000 sitting around in a bank account, left over from the sale of a parcel in Cloman Industrial Park. Thus, the money — supposedly — did not come from the Town and County taxpayers, and could be used for a political campaign. Or so we were told.
At the hastily-planned Town Council meeting last Thursday, Mayor Shari Pierce directed Town staff to investigate the $10,000 bank account, and ensure that the money did not come from the local taxpayers.
But perhaps the ‘optics’ are not the best. Perhaps, to at least some taxpayers, it looks like the Town and County are enlisting an organization, almost totally dependent by taxpayer contributions, to run a political campaign on their behalf.
What would a $10,000 election campaign look like, in a small town like Pagosa Springs? As a person who has been involved in ballot issue campaigns in the past, I would consider $10,000 to be a huge expenditure. And perhaps problematic as well, considering that the ballots for the November election will go out on October 17… barely more than a month away.
If they actually end up conducting a tax increase campaign, would the government-funded PSCDC make an effort to share both sides of the issue?
Because there are certainly two sides to a $6.5 million sales tax increase. For example, there’s the side who are paying it, and there’s the side who are spending it.