Durango voters said “yes” to a $1.1 million lodgers tax question that asked voters if the city could retain excess tax revenues from 2021 and 2022.
Minutes before midnight, support for ballot measure 2A outweighed the opposition with 68% of voters saying yes for the city to retain the money and 32% saying no.
Out of 8,666 ballots counted, 5,915 votes were for ballot measure 2A and 2,751 votes were against it.
“I’ve often felt that this is an opportunity for the community to collectively decide to support issues that are important to all of us: Housing, transportation, the arts,” Mayor Barbara Noseworthy said Tuesday.
She said she supported putting the fate of excess lodgers tax revenues to the voters because it is a bigger issue than should be decided solely by five city councilors.
Councilor Olivier Bosmans said he is happy with whatever outcome voters decide.
Councilor Kim Baxter said 2A was about providing money for housing and transportation and that people understand the importance of housing.
She said she is “very happy” the ballot measure passed.
Ballot measure 2A specifically asked voters if the city can retain excess lodgers tax revenues from 2021 and 2022, about $1.1 million, to be allocated to affordable and workforce housing programs (66%); transportation, including parking (20%); and arts and culture projects (14%). It also asked if the city may retain the 3.25% increase to the city’s lodgers tax that voters approved in April 2021.
Last spring, voters approved an increase to the city’s lodgers tax from 2% to 5.25%. That ballot measure required 55% of lodgers taxes to be spent on sustainable tourism marketing services, 20% on transportation and 14% for arts and culture. The remaining 11% was left for discretionary spending by City Council.
Voters approved a 3.25% increase to Durango’s lodgers tax in April 2021. TABOR, Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, requires that lodgers tax revenues in excess of the city’s projections by the end of the year need to be refunded to residents unless they approved a new use of the funds in a local election.
City Council unanimously supported letting voters decide whether the city can retain the excess lodgers tax in August with the exception of Bosmans, who did not attend the meeting. But, with fewer than three months between then and the Tuesday election, it would not be cheap to get 2A onto the ballot. The ballot measure was projected to cost up to $55,000, City Clerk Faye Harmer told The Durango Herald in August.
City Council considered uses for excess lodgers tax revenues before it voted to move forward with a ballot initiative, although housing was part of the discussion from the start.
Some Durango residents attended City Council meetings to advocate for funding affordable workforce housing projects on the ballot measure. Other Durango residents went to meetings to ask City Council to move forward with tax refunds.
If 2A failed, the city would have had to issue a tax refund; City Council previously agreed to issuing refunds, if required, to residential utility accounts, and estimates figured about $218 would be refunded to each account, Tom Sluis, spokesman for the city of Durango, said in August.
cburney@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story erred in saying Durango City Councilor Olivier Bosmans voted in favor of putting the excess lodgers tax question on the ballot. Bosmans was absent from that meeting and therefore did not vote.
