BAYFIELD – Faced with a $2.3 million backlog of street maintenance needs, Bayfield town trustees have opted to ask voters in April for a 1 percent sales-tax increase – from the current 2 percent to 3 percent.
The backlog figure came from a street inventory done in 2013, Town Manager Chris La May said.
Trustees last week voted 5-1, with Tom Au voting no, to ask for the sales-tax increase, with the money designated for street projects.
They still have to approve a formal election resolution to place it on the ballot.
The 2014 budget listed $669,559 for assorted street-maintenance projects in addition to the big spending item – replacement of the two green bridges on Bayfield Parkway, estimated at $3 million.
The town got a $707,000 grant last year to help pay for bridge replacement. The budget was approved based on that.
In December, the town got notice of a second grant for $679,000.
La May said the second grant will free money for other street maintenance beyond what was budgeted, “assuming the bridge replacement costs come in as expected.”
The town money comes from just more than $5 million left from $6.8 million that the Colorado Department of Transportation paid the town in 2011 to take over Bayfield Parkway (previously U.S. Highway 160B) from end to end, with the money to be used only for road-related projects.
Bridge and maintenance spending in the 2014 budget would have reduced the transportation fund to around $2.1 million.
Despite the second bridge grant, La May said, “The forecast is that if we continue taking money from the transportation fund, in around 2020 to ’21 or ’22, that fund will be depleted.”
He suggested that starting in 2021, once Town Hall debt is paid off, around $200,000 a year could be transferred from the capital-improvement fund to the transportation fund to close the funding gap.
But he told trustees, “That still doesn’t meet the full need. There’s a need for additional revenue. Is it time to go to voters” for a sales- or property-tax increase? The election could be at the April 1 town-board election or during the November election, he said.
Trustees generally preferred a sales-tax increase. They debated the timing.
“There aren’t that many people that vote in April,” trustee Tom Au said. “More will vote in November.”
Trustee Matt Nyberg agreed.
Only 67 people voted in the 2012 town board election, out of 1,619 registered voters.
La May noted delays in maintenance raise future costs because of more road deterioration.
He cited South Mesa Avenue, scheduled for work this year. Because of paving deterioration since last year, the cost has increased about $30,000.
He also said large road-maintenance contracts combining many separate items cost proportionately less than contracts with fewer items.
So he presented the idea of tackling the larger maintenance backlog this year or over four years.
La May said, “If we can spend more money, we can hopefully get out ahead of it, but we can’t do it all. ... We’d be using transportation fund money with the idea that if we spend the money now, it will save money later on. We can try to dial it in a little more and bring it back at the next meeting.”
