Photo: Consultant Joey McLiney presents a possible funding plan to the Pagosa Springs Town Council acting as the Board of the Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District. October 2024.
Pricing has been received from WW Clyde for additional Town Improvements associated with the Main Street Reconstruction Project. Attached is a tally of total pricing for Town improvements contained within the CDOT project, pricing for additional project scope improvements staff requested from WW Clyde, and other expenses…
— from the Pagosa Springs Town Council agenda, April 1, 2025.
The expenses just keep on coming.
In Part Five, yesterday, we touched on the proposal, currently under consideration by the Pagosa Springs Town Council, to create a new sales tax within the town limits, to be used to fund extensive repairs to the Town’s sanitation system — maybe $40 million worth? The Town of Pagosa Springs does not currently collect a sales tax, but Archuleta County does, in the amount of 4% on each taxable purchase. The County then shares half of its sales tax revenues with the Town government. The sales tax now being discussed would likely be a Town-only tax and would not be shared with the County government. It would need voter approval, but only by the voters who live within the Town limits.
This is not the only capital project and related spending increase that local government entities are planning, in the next couple of years. Expensive plans are currently being made by Archuleta School District, the County government, the Town government, the Library District, and the San Juan Water Conservancy District. PAWSD is in the midst of two projects we’ve already started paying for: a new $40 million water treatment facility on Snowball Road and a $10 million upgrade to the Vista waste water plant. The La Plata Electric Association is planning expansions.
How much more can we expect people to pay, for government needs and wants? (Needs being different from wants.) A large segment of our local workforce is already struggling with housing costs, health care costs, child care costs, utilities, and food costs.
And with taxes.
Our local government entities are ambitious, however. On our behalf, of course.
Let’s consider, for example, the dollar amounts discussed during the April 1 Town Council meeting, regarding planned upgrades and repairs that will happen in conjunction with the ongoing Highway 160 reconstruction. The Town will be paying the CDOT contractor, WW Clyde, to perform most of the work. The Town will also me paying CDOT a 26% “management fee” on these projects.
A summary of the Town’s needs and wants:
1. New streetlights, plus a new crosswalk at Piedra Road and 160, plus traffic control and management fees
$937,717
2. North and South Second Street drainage culvert adjustment
3. New Middle School Sidewalk
$341,010
4. Remodel Historic 400 Block Streetscape
$475,631
5. Add Additional Downtown Fire Hydrants
$895,000
6. New Concrete Roadbed on Hot Springs Blvd Entrance:
$242,115
7. Replace Concrete Entrance to Lewis Street
$186,523
8. New Concrete Entrance to S. 7th Street
$218,643
9. Replace Concrete Entrance to S. 8th Street
$364,761
10. Upgrades to S. 5th Street
$473,732
11. New Underground Conduit for Future Electric Service
$46,800
12. Electrical Work for Street Lights
$325,000
13. Engineering Representative
$100,000
14. Landscape Architect
$50,000
15. Geothermal Line Installation
$250,000
16. Sanitary Sewer Service Lines
$1,400,000
17. Cost of Light Poles, Signage, and Parking Lot Gravel
$520,000
18. Contingency 15%
$1,007,540
GRAND TOTAL
$7,724,472
I suspect very few of us would object to Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID) repairing stuff that’s broken… or replacing and upgrading the old pipes that pass underneath Highway 160… or with replacing short, broken sections of side streets that connect to Highway 160.
And best to do it now — over the next two years, while the highway is torn up — rather than doing it after the new highway is finished.
Some of us, or all of us, will ultimately pay for this stuff.
But… I don’t recall this expense being included in the Town’s 2025 budget. Does the Town government have enough money available right now? Maybe not.
Let’s hear some of the April 1 conversation.
Town Manager David Harris:
“This is a lot to ask for, and a lot to discuss. We were discussing, at the staff level, how do we afford this? April and her team have been working up some slides that I want her to walk you through, and what if we dipped into our savinds to pay for part of it, and what if we finance part of this, as an option…”
Town Clerk April Hessman (showing slides on the screens):
“We have operating capital, and we have capital reserves in the General Fund, and we have capital reserves in the Capital Fund. As we’ve been building our reserves, we knew the Main Street project was coming up, and that [PSSGID] will pay some of this funding as well.
“So in the Capital Fund reserves, we have just over $2 million. Approximately. In the General Fund capital reserves, we have about $2.8 million. Capital Fund reserves can be used on any capital project. General Fund reserves can be used on anything. It can be given to Geothermal; it can given to Sanitation…
“We asked [financial consultant Joey McLiney] what would happen if we got some COPs. So this graph shows what our [future] revenues might be. We’ve estimated a 4% increase each year…
“Our Operations and Maintenance of our capital items is growing. Right? So we have quite a bit of Capital Fund O&M items. And we valued that at a 3% growth over the next couple of years. And this shows you what’s left for capital projects. If somebody needs a vehicle, or we need to do something with the parks, or if we need to repave any of the streets. That’s how much we have left. It’s not a lot. Maybe $700,000 dollars.”
The Town government is funded mainly through sales taxes shared by the Archuleta County government. As prices, overall, have been inflating over the past decade, the Town and County have seen the sales tax collections increase. Some of that increase has been spent on new parks and infrastructure, and the Town’s debt burden has grown.
Now the Town needs to take care of all the newly acquired property and infrastructure. It’s not cheap.
And with inflation, it gets less and less cheap with each passing day. We could even suggest that the Town government is like a family that bought new cars they can’t really afford.
Except, it’s the taxpayers who have to make the car payments.
Read Part Seven, on Monday…