By Rachel Suh
I went to this week’s Vets For Vets meeting… (thank you to the Vets for your service, and if you served in Vietnam, Welcome Home…) where the contentious Ballot Issue 1A was discussed. Many of the Vets appeared to be unhappy that the ballot question did not have any verbiage about required percentages of the increase in sales tax to be allocated to roads, as has been advertised by the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation, who insists they do not work for the government but appear to receive a majority of their funds from the County and Town governments… upwards of 89% to be precise.
We were told at the meeting that Resolution 2022-98 has the verbiage that states at least 50% of funding is to be directed towards the roads. This is factual. Under general provision 13, section a, clause i, it states the following:
At least 50% of the revenues generated to the design, engineering, maintenance, improvement, construction and/or reconstruction of the roads, bridges and other infrastructure that has been accepted into the County road system by the Board, along with such equipment, land and materials needed to perform such design, engineering, maintenance, improvement, construction and/or reconstruction.
However, one must read the entire resolution to understand why people are so upset about the lack of verbiage on the ballot, allocating a percentage of the increase in sales tax towards the maintenance, repair, and creation of roads.
Under the section entitled, “Miscellaneous”, Provision 23 is entitled ‘Amendments’. It states the following:
Unless otherwise required by Colorado law, the provisions of this Resolution may be amended by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners.
With a recent survey on sales tax by Magellan Strategies showing only 4% of the respondents “Strongly Agreed” that “Archuleta County is fiscally responsible and spends taxpayer money wisely,” it is clear that people are concerned that the future commissioners can make a simple amendment to this resolution to allocate funds away from roads and towards any project they deem desirable.
Based on the doubling of our budget for the creation of infrastructure that was voted down twice by the electors of this county, it is also clear that people have real and legitimate cause for concern.
Due to this ability to amend resolution 2022-98… the lack of verbiage on the ballot itself allocating a specific percentage of revenue to the roads… along with the lack of transparency about the nuances in the ‘Yes on 1A’ campaign, a group that has not been forthright about the ability to change allocations through a simple resolution of the Board of County Commissioners…
…I will be voting ‘NO on 1A’ in November.
Rachel Suh lives in Pagosa Springs, and is a Certified SCRUM Master and Strategic Consultant working in facilitation, mentoring, training, and coaching. She has a passionate hobby of Political Activism.