Briefs Mt. Crested Butte

July sales tax decline
Summer sales tax hasn’t been looking too good for the town. The July sales tax collections for 2009 were 22 percent lower than 2008, with $76,950 collected. All sales tax categories showed a decrease. The town’s sales tax rate dropped from 4.5 percent to 4 percent at the beginning of the year. Town manager Joe Fitzpatrick says that without the decline in the sales tax rate, the town would be only 12.4 percent behind last July’s sales tax collections. According to Fitzpatrick’s written report to the council, “We had set the 2009 summer sales tax budget flat to 2008 however this is not proving to be the case. Based on collections to date the August sales tax numbers are projected to be well below 2008’s collections.” However, Fitzpatrick notes, “Sales tax collections for August of 2006, 2007 and 2008 were all strong when comparing to historical data.” The August sales tax report won’t be ready until the council’s next meeting on October 20. The town is 11 percent behind 2008 in year-to-date sales tax collections for 2009.

It’s budget season
The town is getting ready for a busy budget season. The 2010 budget will take more shape during several work sessions on October 20, November 3 and November 17, with a public hearing on the budget following the work session on November 17. Fitzpatrick says the work completed to-date on the Mt. Crested Butte five-year financial plan has put the town well into the budget process. Similar to last year, the town is working on two budgets to reflect the success or failure of various ballot questions in the November 3 election.

Support for LMD tax
The Town Council signed a letter in support of ballot issue 5A, which asks voters to reauthorize the Local Marketing District Tax, 4 percent levy on local lodging sales. The accumulated funds are earmarked for promotions and advertising for the county. Those funds are channeled through the Gunnison/Crested Butte Tourism Association.

Computer problems
The town of Mt. Crested Butte has been experiencing some problems with its computer network recently. According to Fitzpatrick, on September 21 the town had to send a part from the main server to Hewlett Packard to get fixed. The part was re-installed later that week but the problems with the server continued. The next week another new part was installed to the server, but that just led town staff to discover yet another broken component. Finally, on October 1, the third broken component was fixed and the server was up and running again.