Durango city government’s failure to disclose important facts to the public at a critical time, mishandling of city budgets, disregard of citizen input and loss of voter trust explains why the April 1A sales tax increase should be defeated.
Twenty years ago, Durango needed to build a recreation center and expand its trails and parks system. In 1999, the citizens voted to tax themselves for 20 years with a new one-half-percent sales tax, and again in 2005 with an additional one-half-percent sales tax, also for 20 years, primarily benefiting parks and recreation. Along with additional city general fund transfers, nearly $89 million has poured into parks and recreation projects like our outstanding recreation center, soccer fields, hockey rink, tennis courts, 33 city parks and 112 miles of city-maintained trails.
Fast forward to 2015. The parks and recreation supporters wanted to extend the sales tax for another 20 years, even though the original 1999 tax would not sunset for four more years. The 2015 ballot language gave no hint that the combination of two sales taxes and general fund transfers would generate an additional $200 million for parks and recreation through 2039. To protect all of those dollars, the City Council last month voted 4-1 that any re-purposing of the 2015 tax extension would cause the city to “lose the trust” of Durango voters.
Conveniently, the City Council forgot to trust citizen thinking regarding the overwhelming defeat of the November 2018 tax increase and instead dreamed up a new sales tax, albeit with no long-range vision or planning.
Let’s talk more about trust: Most people who voted for the 2015 parks and recreation tax extension didn’t realize the original 1999 tax wouldn’t expire for another four years. Few voters knew in 2015 that the city’s reserve fund was nearly depleted; that two new sewer and water treatment plants were to be financed with massive increases in water, sewer and trash fees; that expensive street repairs and a new police station were needed. Even fewer voters knew the city and county wanted to raise property taxes for roads and bridges, do a major expansion of the airport, and that both the fire and school districts were going to ask for increases in property taxes. Virtually no voters in 2015 knew about storm sewer problems and city commitments to Ewing Mesa infrastructure.
So, while the voters didn’t know about the above “wicked problems,” you can bet the city staff, Parks and Recreation and City Council knew, but chose to bury them. That explains their rush to push through a major parks and recreation sales tax extension four years early, without putting that tax request in context with other issues. The city’s lack of transparency with voters in 2015 was stunning.
City residents and business owners have been inundated with property tax, sales tax and fee and fine increases over the past decade. At the same time, the city has been strangely silent about where spending has been cut to free up dollars for other purposes. Has that even happened? Who on the city staff has identified services we can’t afford?
Voters need to be confident the city has taken a hard look at existing programs, similar to what Fort Lewis College and La Plata County have done, before coming to them with another tax-increase proposal. And certainly the City Council must ask voters if they want to re-purpose some of this year’s swollen $92 million city budget for other critical city needs. It is a debate the current City Council – Councilor Melissa Youssef being the exception – has not allowed voters to consider.
So, here are two of the questions voters must decide before voting on Question 1A.
Besides the $89 million parks and recreation has already received, is it more important to give an additional $200 million to parks and recreation to expand the existing 112 miles of trails and 33 city parks? Or, is building a new police station ($25 million), repairing city streets ($55 million), and increasing city reserves ($20 million) at least equally important? If the latter is a priority, part of the tax dollars destined for parks and recreation could be used to solve those three problems without raising any new taxes and still keeping nearly $100 million for parks and recreation.
Our volunteer City Council members are hard-working and caring leaders of this community, but this time they chose not to listen to their constituents.
Rejection of the April 1A sales tax increase will send a clear message that taxpayers want long-term planning, austerity in city expenditures and a chance to reallocate existing tax revenues.
Durango needs fresh thinking, rather than a blind rush to add another new tax to already overburdened taxpayers.
John M. Ritchey lives in Durango.
