After a lifetime in La Plata County, I was sure I had the budget figured out. Property values keep going up, therefore county revenues go up with them, right? Surely this more than offsets the loss in revenue from oil and gas, right? In a word, wrong.
I had the good sense to visit the county assessor to check out the validity (or fallacy) of this theory, and she set me straight. She was ready to print out 20 pages of revenues to demonstrate the fallacy of my theory, but I stopped her in time. The summary figures show that additional revenue from increased property values has not kept pace, not even close, with the loss of oil and gas revenue.
It is time to deal with the shortfall, or we will soon be in the desperate situation of cutting services that so many of us hold so dear. For example, the county’s senior center staff work every day to put together a system of revenues from the county, plus state and federal grants, to keep the center open and functioning at a sustainable level. Hats off to them, and please help them out. Vote ‘Yes’ on 1A.
Jean Walter
Durango
