La Plata County’s Road and Bridge Division has been doing a lot with a little for too long. It is time we invest in quality, safe roads with a “yes” vote on Ballot Issue 1A.
Doing so will enable the division to make critical infrastructure improvements and address public safety issues countywide.
Our 653 miles of county roads, a third of which are paved, daily support us getting to work, school and shopping. Our tourism, agriculture and recreation economies also depend on them.
A “yes” vote on the ballot issue will permit a 2.4 mill levy increase and raise $40 million over 10 years. That will allow the county to implement the Road and Bridge Improvement Plan outlined on its website at co.laplata.co.us. The plan includes 35 reconstruction and asphalt paving projects, intersection realignments and bridge design and upgrades in all four of the county’s road districts.
Residents will recognize some of these routes and their distinct need for improvement. They include replacing the La Plata River bridge and paving the Marvel town site. Animas Valley residents, pedestrians and cyclists will appreciate that County Road 203 (West Animas Road) will be repaved. County roads 250 (East Animas Road), 251 (32nd Street) and 252 (Trimble Lane) would be repaved and shoulders widened. Bayfield residents will see improvements planned for part of county roads 234 and 510, to name a few.
Since 2010, La Plata County has experienced a 43 percent reduction in revenue largely because of a decline in gas production, which is projected to stay flat for 10 years.
And because 2017 tax revenue will be based on 2015 valuation, when the industry took the biggest hit, we have not seen the bottom yet.
Combined with the fact that La Plata County has not raised property taxes in 24 years, has the fourth lowest mill levy in the state and has experienced five years of precipitously falling tax revenue, the mill levy increase will close the widening gap between available funds and road and bridge needs.
A “yes” vote on 1A will provide up to $4.5 million in 2017, at an average cost to taxpayers of $76/year on a $400,000 home, and subsequent years until the measure sunsets in 2026. Money raised will be overseen by a citizen advisory committee and dedicated to specific projects.
Other ideas for funding such improvements include sales tax reallocations and instituting a use tax. But sales tax reallocations in place since 2012 are maxed out. A use tax would bring in less than $1 million per year and has been rejected by the voters in the past.
A mill levy increase can take the most immediate and biggest bite out of the county’s funding shortfall as other revenue diversification efforts are explored.
Sixty other Colorado counties cannot make ends meet with as low a property tax as we have enjoyed. Now is the time to heed the bipartisan and unanimous recommendation of our county commissioners, and the 45 citizen members of the La Plata County Fiscal Sustainability Steering Committee, to increase the mill levy this year.
Vote “yes” on Ballot Issue 1A.
