The question of whether to renew the city of Durango’s 2005 sales tax will not appear on residents’ election ballots this November.
Instead, the ballot language will be refined and possibly put before voters for the April 2025 municipal election.
Durango City Council approved the rescheduling in a unanimous 4-0 vote.
Durango residents and former mayors sounded off Tuesday against placing the sales tax question on the November ballot. The sales tax renewal or reauthorization would, if approved, fund the construction of a new city hall and police station.
They said La Plata County’s lodgers tax appropriation and Durango School District 9-R’s potential bond measure ballot questions would only compete with the city’s sales tax question for attention.
Residents supported a mandated review by the Durango Financial Advisory Board or another resident-led city board or commission, which is not currently required.
Residents and councilors also decried misinformation and disinformation making the rounds on social media falsely claiming the sales tax question proposes an increase in taxes and/or would direct funding to the city’s controversial Downtown’s Next Step project.
Mayor Jessika Buell said the ballot question does not ask voters to increase the 2005 sales tax – it would continue the sales tax at its half-cent rate – and it has nothing to do with funding Next Step.
Councilor Dave Woodruff said rescheduling the 2005 sales tax question for April elections would give the city and the council more time to address misunderstandings and false information about the proposal.
“We have a pretty big disinformation campaign going on right now, where members of our community are giving inaccurate and patently false statements about the ’05 sales tax reauthorization,” he said.
Former Mayor Sweetie Marbury, who made several public comments throughout the meeting, said through tears she knows what it is like for a tax question in an election to fail; and, in turn, she knows what it is like to fail the police department, which is housed in a “leaky shoe box” and has needed new headquarters for decades
She said she was hurt when a joint sales and property tax ballot measure was rejected by voters in 2018. If approved, the ballot measure would have funded a new police station, in addition to street and sidewalk capital projects.
“You don’t want to feel that hurt,” she said. “You don’t want to have to face the men in the lobby and the men in the back and the men and women who serve us.”
Marbury and Dick White, another former Durango mayor, urged City Council to target April municipal elections next year for the sales tax question. That would give the community more time to get familiar with the proposal and to avoid competition with other election items this fall, they said.
White said the 2005 sales tax has served the community well by enabling the development of “first-class recreational facilities” and the acquisition of abundant open spaces for public use.
He said Durango Mesa Park represents another huge opportunity with considerable costs that could be mitigated with help from the sales tax.
But more importantly, the city’s existing parks, open spaces and trails aren’t going to take care of themselves. They need maintenance, he said.
He said Durango deserves an extended sales tax that has been reviewed by a resident-led board or commission.
White also supported a new city hall with centralized offices for city departments and a new police department to replace the existing building “that our long-suffering police officers have used and later endured for nearly 40 years.”
The city’s successful purchase of the historic former high school at 201 E. 12th St. was a “win, win, win” in the face of a “previously insurmountable facility challenge,” he said.
But the city needs oversight, he said. He is disappointed the city finalized ballot language for the 2005 sales tax at “nearly the last moment” and without consulting the Financial Advisory Board. The city used to receive recommendations from various advisory boards, such as the former Durango Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, until those were dissolved and replaced.
Durango and Three Springs resident Rick Cobb said he wants to know more about the projected sales tax revenue and bond debt acquired to renovate the historic former high school and Big Picture buildings, and how much revenue would fund parks and trails maintenance.
“I like that the 50% of that tax that would go toward parks, open space, trails, etc., is the first thing that’s listed, because I think that helps sell that tax,” he said.
He asked for an explanation of the projected $61 million renovation cost for a new city hall and police station and the repayment cost of $123 million.
City Manager José Madrigal, responding to another, similar written comment by resident John Simpson, told The Durango Herald in an email Wednesday the repayment cost considers compounding interest.
“When you finance anything, be it a car or a mortgage, you pay compounding interest payments, which will cause the repayment to be more than the amount you borrowed,” he said. “We have a repayment schedule that we have developed with assistance from our Financial Advisors based on a debt issuance of $61M over 30 years at a 4.75% interest rate, with the flexibility option if the City Council so chooses to have two years of interest-only payments.”
Buell said rescheduling the ballot question for April 2025 gives councilors more time to vet the proposal, answer community questions and concerns, and address misinformation.
cburney@durangoherald.com
