I'm not a big fan of sales taxes. They are regressive, and honestly, as a former business owner, they are a pain in the posterior to collect and remit to the state.

That being said, I think a "yes" vote on the Bayfield sales tax question, ballot question 2A, is a good idea.

Bayfield is a poor town, revenue wise. Colorado's property taxes are skewed so businesses - even small ones - pay whopping property taxes, while the property taxes on residences remain relatively cheap. In a town with a small business base, sales property taxes have to fill the gap to pay for things we like, such as police protection, water and sewer, nice parks, and yes, streets.

The proposed sales-tax increase would increase our total sales tax from 6.9 cents on the dollar to 7.9 cents. Not a whopping amount, and most of us won't notice it.

The reason we can do this now is that maintaining streets while they are in decent shape is cheaper than replacing entire streets later.

I think $285,000 per year now is better than $10 million down the road. With more than 17 miles of roads in town, there should be some maintenance every year.

This issue won't be decided by a lot of voters. It was voted down 66 to 75 this spring.

What would be nice is if more area voters exercised their rights and actually cast their ballots. Perhaps this year's mail-only election will boost those results.

Thanks for reading.