La Plata County voters will receive their ballots this week for the mail-only 2015 election. While there are not many candidate elections, there are several important ballot measures. We, your La Plata County commissioners, want to talk to you about one particular measure here, Question 1A.
La Plata County, like most counties, depends largely on property taxes to fund county roads and bridges. For more than 20 years, strong gas and oil production has buoyed the county and allowed county taxpayers to enjoy the fourth lowest property tax rate in Colorado. Our 8.5 mills compares to a median Colorado county tax rate of 20 mills. The rest of the story, however, is that county property tax revenues fell nearly 50 percent ($15 million) from a peak in 2010 to 2014. The decline was because of both a drop in natural gas prices (which do not show signs of improving) and lower gas production as the resource is depleted.
A casualty, among others, of the fall-off in tax revenue, has been La Plata County’s ability to keep up with our road and bridge needs. County roads are the backbone of our local transportation system. They get employees to work, customers to stores and restaurants, children to schools, and emergency vehicles to homes and wildfires. They get us to public lands and provide us with some of our finest bicycling routes. The county has cut where we safely could, reducing the frequency of grading, diluting dust suppressant, postponing needed road-improvement projects, and using grants and partnerships to get the most bang for your taxpayer buck. But we can only postpone addressing needs for so long, then the cost for not adequately maintaining roads turns into the higher cost of reconstructing failed roads in the future.
Right now, a taxpayer who owns a home valued at $350,000 pays $20 per year for the Road and Bridge Fund. This level of funding is unsustainable. Under the proposed mill levy increase, that same property owner will pay about $98 per year, or about $8 per month. For a commercial property valued at $400,000, the increase would be less than $300 per year, or $25 per month. This modest increase will allow La Plata County to catch up where we have gotten behind on roads and bridges. Additionally, La Plata County towns will also benefit from this measure. In accordance with state law, each year the county will share an estimated $55,000 with Bayfield, $11,000 with Ignacio and $800,000 with Durango.
So how did we get to this ballot measure?
Two years ago, the writing was on the wall that gas and oil taxes would decline and that county savings from the heyday would not bridge the gap between tax revenues and road and bridge needs. At that time, the county’s volunteer Long Term Finance Committee of Ron Corkish, Rich Butler, Pam Miles, Ken Fusco and Gene Bradley went to work forecasting and analyzing what the county’s revenues and road needs would be in the future. After considering a use tax (which would not adequately fund the gap) and a sales tax (which would disproportionately affect those on less or fixed income), they recommended a property tax measure. This summer, the county commissioners asked a group of about 30 residents from across the county, of different (or no) political affiliations, business owners and representatives from various industries, to make recommendations of their own.
Question 1A came out of those recommendations.
There are three parts to ballot Question 1A. First, there is a sunset provision, so after 10 years, the tax goes away unless voters in the future want to extend it. Second, the increase cannot exceed 2.4 mills. The costs to homeowners and businesses were discussed above. With the language “not to exceed,” county commissioners could adjust the amount down if economic (or other) circumstances justified doing so. Third, the measure calls for a citizens committee to advise the commissioners on road priorities and to prepare an annual report to ensure that the money is only used for roads and bridges.
Often we are asked what roads will be improved if the tax measure passes. The county prepares a 10-year Capital Improvement Plan for Roads and Bridges. The list shows priority projects. The precise timing of the projects may be affected by grants or partnerships, but some near-term priority projects affect County Road 251 (32nd Street) and County Road 250, County Road 141 (Wildcat Canyon Road), Hermosa Meadows Road (partnering with Durango School District 9-R and others) serving Animas Valley Elementary, and County Road 502. The entire plan is available on the county website, www.co.laplata.co.us. A “yes” vote on Question 1A will help projects like these move forward with certainty.
We, as county commissioners, were hired by you the voters to learn the county’s business and to manage it. It is our duty to you to let you know when there is a problem and to give you an opportunity to fix it. Natural gas taxes will not carry the load as they have in the past. A modest property tax increase, the first in over 25 years, can get our county roads and bridges on a path that keeps them safe and ample for our community’s needs. This is a reasonable and responsible fix to our roads and bridge problems.
We encourage you to vote “yes” on Question 1A.
Julie Westendorff, Gwen Lachelt and Brad Blake are the La Plata County commissioners. Reach them at Julie.Westendorff@co.laplata.co.us; Gwen.Lachelt@co.laplata.co.us; or Brad.Blake@co.laplata.co.us.
