“Take care of what you have” is the primary message from citizens to the city of Durango during a nearly year-long civic engagement effort. The response is the “Back to Basics” ballot issue 2A.
Residents overwhelmingly approve of the services provided by the city and express willingness to pay more taxes to keep them. (See www.durangogov.org/engage.) Their concerns particularly focus on public safety and street maintenance.
Police protection; fire and emergency services; streets, alleys, sidewalks, and storm drains: together these basics account for roughly half of the services provided by the city’s general fund.
Unfortunately, the revenues available to support them are growing more slowly than expenses, and the shortfall is happening already in 2018 because the 416 Fire reduced sales and lodgers taxes.
The General Fund also supports routine maintenance of city buildings, but resources are insufficient to replace major facilities, such as our aging, inadequate police station.
Other city functions are entirely supported by fees for service, such as water, sewer, trash, and recycling, each of which has its own enterprise fund.
Service fees also can include paying for major projects (usually through bonds), such as the Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility. Still other efforts, including new parks and recreation facilities such as Animas River Trail extensions, depend on special revenue funds supported by taxes specifically approved by the voters for limited purposes.
Ballot issue 2A would address general fund needs though increases in tax rates on property by 5.4 mills and on sales by 0.55 percent, yielding roughly $7.6 million in additional annual revenue for 25 years. Such duration is essential for bonding major expenses, sharing the cost among current and future taxpayers.
The 5.4 mill increment in property tax would raise about $2.9 million in relatively stable revenue for essential public safety services to every residence and business in the city. Of this, 2.2 mills ($1.2 million) would fund bonds for construction of the badly needed police station. The additional 3.2 mills ($1.7 million) would enable Durangoans to join Durango Fire Protection District members in paying our entire annual commitment through property taxes. New payments would total about $13 a month for a $400,000 home or $130 a month for a $1,000,000 business.
Police headquarters today occupies a 1950s car dealership building, which housed just 30.5 employees (25 officers) in 1985; today it houses 66 (56 officers).
The building provides inadequate space for passage of prisoners, training, or efficient evidence management, much less room for additional police officers. A 2015 study of city facilities estimated that the department should have roughly three times the current space. Consequently, replacement – either on the existing site or a new one – is by far the city’s highest facility need.
The sales tax increase, 55 cents on a $100 purchase, would provide 58 percent of the new revenue, $4.7 million. Because non-residents also contribute sales taxes toward their use of city services, residents prefer them over property taxes, though many indicated acceptance of a hybrid approach, as embodied in issue 2A.
Citizens also indicated that the city should consider fee increases and restraints on spending. Making the commitment to do both in future budgets, the city chose to seek $7.6 million per year in new revenue, rather than the $8.6-$10 million per year that would fully fund the estimated need. The higher maximum stated on the ballot, $8,716,000, avoids a possible multitude of small refunds required by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights if revenue unexpectedly exceeded the target amount.
The ballot language includes public safety in general, code enforcement, and possible facility improvements beyond the new police station. These provisions would allow funding of additional police officers plus another code enforcement officer. More facility funding would allow essential upgrades to other city buildings, the average age of which is 35 years.
The largest allocation of the sales tax money, however, would be for street maintenance, along with alleys and sidewalks. Florida Road provided a vivid recent example of the very high cost of allowing a street to deteriorate so much that it needs complete reconstruction.
The city maintains a Pavement Condition Index (durangogov.org/streetindex) on all streets with the goal of guiding smaller annual improvements to forestall very expensive reconstruction. Such investments require at least $2 million each year, and much more to facilitate timely upgrades.
After more than a year of discussion, the City Council concluded that addressing these major and urgent fiscal needs requires major investment to ensure a prosperous future for the city of Durango.
For details on the “Back to Basics” proposal and the planned improvements, see durangogov.org/DocumentCenter/View/10497.
Please vote YES on Ballot Issue 2A.
Durango City Council: Mayor Sweetie Marbury, Mayor Pro-Tem Melissa Youssef and councilors Dick White, Dean Brookie and Chris Bettin
