When searching for a royalty-free photo to illustrate Part One of this editorial series, I typed the term, taxation, into my image search, and one of the images served up was the Hindu god, Lord Ganesha, shown above.
Ganesha is widely revered in India as the remover of obstacles and bringer of good luck; as the patron of arts and sciences; and the deva of intellect and wisdom.
Why Ganesha would be displayed, for someone doing an image search for “taxation”, I cannot say. But the fact is, the Town Council was specifically looking for help in removing some obstacles during their regular meeting on Tuesday evening, as they considered the first reading of Ordinance 1014.
An Ordinance of the Town of Pagosa Springs repealing Article 3, Chapter 16 of the Town of Pagosa Springs Municipal Code; calling an election on the question of imposing a one percent (1%) sales tax; and upon a favorable vote at the November 4, 2025 coordinated election, readopting Article 3, Chapter 16 to impose the sales tax
Daily Post readers are likely aware of the ongoing discussions, advertising, and public meetings conducted over the past few months, related to the Town’s problematic sewer system and the various ways to finance improvements and upgrades to the system.
Here’s a sample advertisement created by Slate Communications that was shared recently on social media.
The video ends with an invitation to participate in a Town survey and express your opinions about different funding approaches, but apparently, the Town Council had already heard enough from the community to make a decision on Tuesday to move ahead with a sales tax measure.
There’s some misleading information in the video above, however, when the narrator states:
“375,000 gallons per day is pumped uphill through aging, failing pipes, to the Vista Wastewater Treatment Plant. It will cost $80-100 million to fix…”
In fact, the pipes that transport the 375,000 gallons uphill to the Vista plant are only about 10 years old and are not failing.
What has been “failing” are the pumps that drive this (absurd?) uphill system, and most of the pumps are even less than 10 years old. Also in failing condition are segments of the 60-year old underground collection system, downtown, that delivers the effluent to Pump Station One.
According to Council member Leonard Martinez, there’s no other municipality in the U.S. that has a similar (absurd?) municipal sewer system that pumps sewage 500 feet uphill over a seven=mile pipeline.
And the overall plan is not to “fix” the pumping system, but rather to replace it with a new, gravity-fed treatment wastewater plant, to be built south of Yamaguchi Park. Cost unknown.
At the Tuesday meeting, Council member Maddie Bergon referenced the Town Council decision, back in 2012, to build the uphill pipeline. That was a completely different group of Council members, back then.
“I have been questioned about how I feel about our predecessors decision to built the pipeline. And I always just try to remember that, in our position, it’s our jobs to make the best decision with the information we have. And I believe that’s what our predecessors did. Who knew, that years down the road, it would be having so many issues.
“So I’m glad that we are finally taking steps to remedy some of these issues, and it feels really good to be, hopefully, taking corrective steps and addressing a lot of these issues and not being stuck, or just reactionary.”
The Council had previously heard proposals from staff, suggesting three possible ways that the Town could raise the estimated $80-100 million needed to address all the Town’s sewer needs. Only about 10% of the community is served by — and pays for — the operations of thePagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID). A much larger percentage — maybe 60% of the community? — pays their monthly sewer bill directly to Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD).
Just to be very clear, PSSGID has estimated the cost of repairs and upgrades at $80-100 million.
This does not include any costs for PAWSD repairs and upgrades. Any money created by a Town sales tax would go exclusively to PSSGID. It would seem that none would go to PAWSD. But I’m willing to be surprised.
So the three possible sources of funding for PSSGID, as suggested by the Town staff and consultants:
1. Increase customer fees — that is, PSSGID customer fees — from $71 a month to about $200 a month. (PAWSD fees would remain unaffected.). The PSSGID board of directors can increase fees without needing voter approval.
2. Increase Town property taxes for PSSGID district taxpayers by $1,000-2,000 per year ($100-200 per month) depending on the property’s valuation. This approach would depend on Town voters approving General Obligation bonds.
3. Increase the community’s sales tax by adding a new 1% sales tax to be collected within the town limits. If this were approved by the Town voters, people would pay 7.9% tax within the town limits — City Market, Walmart, etc — and would pay 6.9% outside the town limits.
The Town Council discussion indicated a clear preference for Option 3 — a new 1% sales tax, to be placed on the ballot.
But there was pushback, from certain Council members, about when to put the measure in front of the voters.
This November, at the general election?
Next April at the Town’s spring election?
The Town government is legally forbidden from spending taxpayer revenues to try and influence a ballot issue, so a successful campaign would presumably depend on a local campaign committee, independently funded by campaign contributions.
No such campaign committee currently exists…
…and people will begin voting in the November mail ballot election in mid-October. That’s a little over two months away.
That doesn’t give supporters of a sales tax increase much time to organize a campaign committee, solicit contributions, and successfully sell the issue to the Town voters.
Delaying the vote until April would allow more time for a successful political campaign…