Before we get into the Herald editorial board’s full support of Ballot Issue 2A, the city of Durango’s referred measure asking voters to reauthorize and extend for 30 years the city’s one half of 1% sales and use tax, as fact-based journalists we must first address the blatant misinformation in the April 1, 2025, Municipal Election Information Booklet the city clerk sent to all registered voters.
Most voters will understandably skip right past the cover’s fine print saying the “City Clerk does not warrant, verify, or confirm the accuracy or truth of the ballot titles, questions, text, and summaries of comments as presented …” This, and the fact that the FOR/AGAINST statements are unsigned, is problematic. Voters should know from whom their information is coming and that it is accurate.
What the tax renewal does not do, as the “AGAINST” comments erroneously say, is allow spending on any project. It is not a “blank check,” there is no “hidden agenda” and sales tax cannot be spent on Next Steps, a falsehood in the comments and a concern expressed by some residents. The ballot language clearly states the uses for the tax, which do not include spending for operations. Nor is a nickel on $10 a “high or higher tax” or have anything to do with the “housing crisis.”
Local residents submitted statements to the clerk’s office. “Citizens for OPT-In DURANGO,” an issue committee registered with the Durango City Clerk, submitted the comments “FOR” Ballot Issue 2A. The committee includes Karen Anesi, Sandy Burke, Bill LeMaire, Cathy Metz and Christina Rinderle.
Metz submitted the statement to the clerk with input from committee members. Additional “FOR” comments were submitted by Tami Joslin and Sweetie Marbury.
The comments written “AGAINST” Ballot Issue 2A were submitted by John Simpson, Barbara Bell and Christa Turnell.
The 1992 Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires a TABOR notice be sent to voters with fiscal information and a summary of FOR/AGAINST statements. There is no requirement the information be factually correct and municipalities are prevented from editing it to avoid accusations of bias. Reader beware.
The editorial board’s support of Ballot Issue 2A rests in the facts. This is not a new tax, rather a renewal of the existing 2005 sales and use tax. It perpetuates Durango as a visionary community and asks city and county residents, and visitors, in thirds to continue to invest $0.50 of every $100 spent on taxable goods and services in Durango’s parks, open space, fire mitigation, trails and capital improvement projects, with oversight by a citizen advisory board. The half-cent sales tax raised $6 million in 2023.
Rather than the Financial Advisory Board the city intends to use, the Herald’s editorial board supports establishing a new advisory board such that accompanied the 2005 tax, and is warranted for the scale and duration of this tax.
The 2005 tax funded the construction of the Durango Public Library and critical improvements to Florida Road. If the tax is renewed, 50% will continue to fund recreational amenities including Durango Mesa Park, the SMART 160 trail to Three Springs, the Animas River and Animas River Trail, and much more over 30 years, and 50% will fund the redevelopment of the former 9-R Administration Building and grounds to house a new city hall civic center campus, consolidating essential operations under one roof, constructing a new underground parking garage (freeing up street level residential parking) and a public bathroom at Buckley Park, and a new state of the art police station, and more.
We are sympathetic to a concern expressed about the $123 million total repayment cost over 30 years of financing a $61 million dollar bond. Unfortunately, it is the cost of doing business in which all municipalities, not just Durango, are engaged. Like consumer borrowing, interest is charged and over 30 years adds up. We trust the city to seek the most favorable financing.
By sharing the Greek proverb, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit,” in his advocacy for renewing the tax, Bill LeMaire taps a sentiment that we share – the moral obligation to invest in Durango’s historic, natural and physical community assets.
Vote FOR Ballot Issue 2A on or before April 1. Ballots will be mailed the week of March 10.
