A committee charged with examining financial sustainability options for La Plata County presented four recommendations to county commissioners Wednesday that could translate into a ballot item in the November 2015 election.
After seven weeks of discussion, the committee, composed of community business people and residential stakeholders, recommended the following options for the commission’s consideration:
Refer to voters a mill-levy increase between 1.5 and 2.5 mills to expire after 10 years, with revenues to be dedicated to roads and bridges.
Refer a use tax to voters in 2016 to potentially replace a portion of the mill levy.
Adopt impact fees for new development.
Continue looking for opportunities to reallocate funds within the budget to road and bridge infrastructure.
While the recommendations were reached by general consensus, some committee members opposed one or more of the items.
“I’m not in favor of a property-tax increase,” Sheryl Ayers said. “It may pass with a 10-year sunset, but there are a lot of people out there that think the county is still flush. I favored a sales-tax increase. I’m not ashamed we have a low property tax. So many other things here are expensive.”
Commissioners were most interested in the recommendation for impact fees, which were proposed several years ago in La Plata County but were not implemented. Commissioner Julie Westendorff said she has heard some residents ask why they should value county roads if they live within city limits and hoped they realized the impact county residents have on city coffers.
“I don’t want it to be lost on city residents that the people who come in here and pay a large portion of sales tax have to get here on those county roads,” she said. “I don’t consider that a complicated point.”
With these recommendations, the commission will hold three work sessions with county staff this week and decide how to move forward.
Commissioner Brad Blake told the committee he favors a combination of solutions as opposed to one. If the commission decides to recommend ballot language, it has until Sept. 7 to submit that to the county clerk.
jpace@durangoherald.com
