Taxes don’t usually bring out a crowd of supporters, but the 1999 half-cent sales-tax fan club heralded the upcoming reauthorization vote at City Hall with signs Tuesday night.
About 15 people attended the meeting with enthusiastic signs saying “Approve Recreation” and “Keep Durango Healthy Vote Yes.”
The group with Citizens to Keep Durango Healthy came to show support for the Durango City Council’s approval of the ballot question that will be posed to voters in April.
“Hip, hip hurray and yes,” said Mayor Sweetie Marbury, who gleefully voiced her support for the resolution.
The original tax question paid for the $15.4 million Durango Recreation Center and major sections of the Animas River Trail. It currently is set to sunset in 2019.
The new question asks voters to fund parks, recreation facilities, parks and recreation facilities, trails, the urban forest and bicycle and pedestrianimprovements. If passed, it would extend the tax through December 2039.
“This is important so we can continue to have excellent parks and facilities,” said Sandy Burke, the chairwoman for Citizens to Keep Durango Healthy.
Marbury said she appreciated the fact the ballot includes urban forest because it includes 9,000 trees that the community shares.
Some of the projects that could be paid for with the sales tax include $16 million in Animas River Trail projects, river put-ins and improvements to Chapman Hill, among others.
About a third of the sales-tax money is needed to help fund the maintenance of the existing parks and recreation facilities, Councilor Keith Brant, said at a previous meeting.
Without the sales-tax revenue, costs would have to be paid for from the general fund or some other source of city revenue.
If it failed, it also would curtail any new parks and recreation improvements, Councilor Dean Brookie said.
The mail-in ballots will be sent out March 15, and Election Day will be April 7.
mshinn@ durangoherald.com
Ballot language
Voters will be posed this question in April:
“Without raising the rate of any tax or imposing any new tax, shall the expiration date of the city’s existing one-half of one percent sales and use tax approved in 1999 be extended to December 31, 2039; and shall any revenues remaining after the repayment of the bonds authorized in the 1999 election be used to fund the costs of the construction, operations or maintenance of recreation facilities, parks, trails, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, maintenance facilities used by Parks and Recreation Department, and the urban forest; with all expenditures based on the recommendations of a citizens advisory board to the City Council and subject to annual audit?”
Herald Staff
