By Carole McWilliams
Times columnist
Yo! Listen up!
There's an important election coming, even if the airwaves aren't flooded with sleazy political ads. Your ballot should have arrived in the mail this week. Please don't mistake it for junk and throw it away.
There are no state or federal candidates up for election. But there are important local and state issues on the ballot.
The state question is Proposition BB asking voters YET AGAIN if they want the state to keep and spend $66.1 million of tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales. Presumably they said yes in 2012 when they voted to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. They said yes emphatically in 2013 when they approved excise and sales taxes on recreational marijuana, on top of existing state and local sales taxes.
But because of technicalities in the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, voters will have to confirm that yes means yes. So how much is this vote costing the taxpayers?
If voters say no, you will get a tax refund averaging $8. Big whoopee! The main refunds will go to marijuana grow operations for the excise tax and to marijuana buyers via a big reduction (to slightly above $0) in the sales tax they pay, until the refund amount has been reached.
Local issues include a request for Bayfield, Ignacio, Durango, and La Plata County to opt out of a state law passed in 2005 that otherwise bars them from directly or indirectly providing high speed broadband or other telecom services. Back then, high speed internet meant anything more than 256k. Seriously? If you don't understand or care what this is about, just know that it's important for economic development and jobs.
This will let local governments with excess fiber optic capacity lease some capacity to private internet providers that in turn can serve business and residential customers. Otherwise, it's left to private business to install very expensive duplicate infrastructure. Because of low population density, there's no business case for that.
Then there's funding for road maintenance and improvements. Bayfield is seeking an additional 1¢ of town sales tax (from 2¢ up to 3¢) for street maintenance and related projects, and for drainage infrastructure. A significant share of this tax is paid by out-of-town residents and people passing through. Town voters rejected this twice in 2014. Town staff are preparing two budgets for 2016. If voters reject this again, they'll go with the budget that has an assortment of new fees justt on town residents and businesses, and possible staff cuts. La Plata County is seeking a property tax increase to fund county road maintenance. It will be the first county property tax increase in many, many years. County residents have coasted on the large share of taxes paid by coalbed methane production and facilities. That has declined steadily since the peak in 2009. As I've said on various occasions, good roads don't come cheap, and this stuff isn't paid for by the tooth fairy. Or at least not any more. In addition, Ignacio, Bayfield, and Durango School District patrons will choose new school board members. Ballots are due back to the County Clerk's office or the other ballot drop off locations by 7 p.m. Nov. 3.