Pitching a new airport is not an easy task, even in flush economic times. Doing so in a multijurisdictional environment when other significant infrastructure investments are being made or considered, all amid rather lean resource projections further complicates the matter. And given that is the context facing the city of Durango and La Plata County in hashing out what to do about the jointly operated airport, the process is not exactly expeditious, nor should it be. There are too many factors to warrant hasty decision-making. Nevertheless, it is time for progress.
That will likely come in several measures. At a joint meeting Thursday, the La Plata County Board of Commissioners and the Durango City Council agreed that the question of how to address the airport’s shortcomings is, in some ways, separate from that of how to pay for it. The group largely favors a plan to build a new terminal across the runway from the existing facility, but recognizes that funding the project is influenced by factors far beyond the airport itself.
The city and county see the need to place the airport funding discussion within the larger context of other significant investments that citizens are being asked to make. City water and sewer rates have increased dramatically in 2015, and a costly new wastewater treatment is in the planning stages. City voters in April will decide whether to renew a half-cent sales tax for parks, recreation and multi-modal transportation investment. The county is considering its long-term financing needs for a range of issues including road and bridge maintenance and improvement. Given that, the possibility of a property-tax increase to fund the $85 million terminal construction raises voters’ eyebrows. To address this, the City Council and the county commissioners have asked staff to provide that larger fiscal context as well as comprehensively study all the potential funding options for the airport.
City Councilor Dick White said that this diligence will be a key piece for both governments’ constituents. “People want to see the whole fiscal picture of what they might be asked to pay for,” White said. “We really have a lot of explaining to do about why we’re doing this and why we are requesting funding.”
White is correct, as is La Plata County Commissioner Julie Westendorff who ticked off a list of funding alternatives to explore before bringing a property-tax question to voters. As a result, the city and county staff will examine, by June, such options as a joint city-county sales tax, a regional authority that includes Montezuma and Archuleta counties, user fees, partnering with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to seek outside funding and involving San Juan County, New Mexico. The group is not wedded to any one of these ideas – or others that might arise – for replacing the property-tax option, but is committed to exploring the viability of each. “We need to have sniffed down every hole,” Westendorff said.
Those are the right fiscal steps to take, and in the meantime, the city and county are poised to formally advance on the preferred option, though the county will wait until March 24 – after meetings with the towns of Bayfield and Ignacio, and perhaps others. That makes sense. Even though the county’s direction is clear, input is critical. “It is incumbent upon us that we take this to various communities in the county so that there is ownership,” said Commissioner Gwen Lachelt.
Waiting two weeks to do so, while giving direction to place the airport in its whole fiscal context, is sound leadership from both the city and county. The project is advancing at an appropriate speed.
