The 2018 election is a long ways off, but members of the Cortez City Council may want to put a sales tax on the ballot.
During a busy workshop on March 28, the council discussed a possible reissue of a sales tax to help pay for the operating costs of the Cortez Recreation Center. The current 0.55 percent tax is set to expire in 2021, which would remove a large chunk of the center’s funds. The council will spend time during workshops throughout this year trying to agree on a ballot item that would allow city residents to vote on a new tax.
“We pay about half of the operations costs right now with a part of that sales tax,” City Manager Shane Hale said.
Another part of the sales tax has been going to pay off the debt the city incurred while constructing the center, but that debt is on schedule to be paid off in 2021, the same year as the tax expires. Hale proposed the city put a question on the ballot asking voters to approve the continuation of the tax, at a lower rate, once the current rate expires.
Joye McHenry, the facility supervisor at the center, said the city shouldn’t waste any time securing the funding for future maintenance.
“The building itself is 13 years old, so ... we’re just now getting into that 15- to 20-year lifespan for a lot of our (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, parking lot, a lot of the really big ticket items,” she said.
The city recently approved a bid for an engineering survey of the building’s HVAC system. Parks and Recreation director Dean Palmquist said the facility tries to budget about $15,000 per year to replace old equipment, but that wouldn’t be enough to replace major parts of the building’s structure. McHenry added that, with the Colorado minimum wage set to rise to $12 within the next few years, the center needs to budget more money for employee wages.
Both McHenry and Hale said they hope to avoid raising user fees at the Center if at all possible. The last time they did so, in 2011, Hale said most people reacted negatively, and if fees become too expensive, many people will stop using the facility altogether.
Mayor Karen Sheek asked why the sales tax couldn’t stay at its current rate.
“It seems to me that those people that are going to be upset ... it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s 0.55 or 0.35,” she said. “They’re not going to want to pay it, period.”
She suggested the part of the tax that used to go to paying off the city’s debt could now be used for capital projects or major repairs on the building. But Hale said he believes a 0.35 percent rate would be enough to do all those things, and that it would be easier to sell to the public.
He said he wants to start work on the ballot initiative this year so that the council has enough time to agree on the right wording–and to give them a margin for error in case the election doesn’t go their way.
“If it does fail, we would have 2020 to build it back,” he said.
The first step in the process, Hale said, is to hire an attorney to help the city council draft the language of the ballot question. Once the city has a first draft of the question, he said they will also hold public meetings to seek input from the community on the issue.
Last month, the Cortez City Council approved a $200,000 bid for the construction of new restrooms at Centennial Park, to replace the current 30-year-old building.
Parks and Recreation Director Dean Palmquist asked the council to approve a construction bid to Weminuche Construction Authority, based in Towaoc. The new restroom building will use the same model as the one in Parque de Vida, including more modern lighting and upgraded outdoor electric outlets. The construction bid, at $199,999, exceeded the budget by more than $25,000, but Palmquist said he would cut from other projects if necessary. The city also has approved pickleball courts for the park.