July sales tax numbers soar in town and on the mountain

Mt. Crested Butte sales tax
collections up 24 percent

It’s been a while since there was good news to report on the sales tax front. In July, though, the busy vibe was downright palpable, and now the numbers are in to confirm it. In fact, both Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte are reporting that this July was unprecedented for sales tax collections. The businesses in both towns say it was strong as well.

On the mountain, town finance director Karl Trujillo said there was $2,381,000 in taxable sales in July, which equated to $119,057 collected in sales tax. That’s $22,871 better than what was budgeted, according to Trujillo, and 24 percent up from last year. He said restaurants, retail and lodging were all up—lodging in particular was up 38 percent.
Justin Hastings, co-owner of the Store and Treasury Liquors, confirmed, “July was a good month, though it took a while for things to kick in up here.” Because the store was closed last year during July following a structure fire, Hastings couldn’t draw parallels to last July. However, he said, “The Fourth of July was great up here and great for business. It was nice to see some people up on the mountain. Every weekend in July there were tons of weddings.”
Hastings also said the first two weeks of August felt similarly busy to July, and things started to drop off once kids from Texas and Oklahoma headed back to school mid-month. He’s looking forward to the Fall Festival of Beers on September 11, and thinks the additions of a bigger name band and a downhill biking event will be very complementary and add to the draw.
Andy Eflin from Peak Sports/One Track Mind, located at the base area, said both June and July were up from last year. “July was very good, certainly up over last year, bike rentals were good, and retail was very good. One of the strongest months in the last year.” Eflin said the Twilight Rides during Wednesday’s Live from Mt. Crested Butte concerts were a big contributor. “The biking program has improved a lot,” Eflin said. “Extending lift hours to 4 p.m. was huge, and now they’ve extended it through Labor Day.”
Eflin also said this June was substantially up over last June for Peak, and he attributed the increase to the Bluegrass in Paradise events at the base area.
“It brought people to town that spend money,” Eflin said. “We even had people in the store spending money from Tokyo, Japan, who came here just to see the concerts.”
As for the upcoming ski season, Eflin is optimistic. “I’m hearing very good things about group business this winter… seems like we’re going into a positive winter. It sounds very good.”
The ski area also reported having a top-notch July. Daren Cole, Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s vice president for sales and marketing said, “I think we can easily say that this was the busiest July in the history of the resort. We were up in all categories including lodging, rental/retail, lift tickets, Adventure Park and Food & Beverage. After a somewhat soft June, July put us back on track and we saw a great rebound across the board. The addition of mini golf to the Adventure Park and the launch of the Evolution Bike Park really added the critical mass of animation to provide a sustainable level of activity in the base area.”
Cole continued, “In addition, we hosted some fantastic events in July and Allison Yeary did a fantastic job with the Wednesday night concerts. Adding the twilight lift component was a huge success that really catered to the after-work riding community.”

Crested Butte sees an uptick as well

In Crested Butte the sales tax also increased, but not at the rate of Mt. Crested Butte. Crested Butte saw an increase of about 8 percent in sales tax revenues compared to last summer.
“It was our biggest July ever by a bit,” said Crested Butte finance director Lois Rozman. “Last year we were down 3 percent in July so this is actually an 11 percent turnaround from 2008.”
Rozman said the town has so far collected $303,603 for the month. She said there are still a few businesses that have to file their July sales tax, so the figures will be even better when all is said and done.
“It’s very good,” Rozman said. “We can finally see a positive month. And August seems to be a pretty busy month as well, but we won’t know the exact figures for another month.”
Eric Roemer of the Wooden Nickel said this summer has certainly been pretty good. “We did better this July than last July,” he said. “Until I see the total breakdown, I won’t know how it compares to previous years, but I was certainly pleased with this July. August so far has been better than last year as well. It’s nice to see an uptick for a change.”
Betsy Heartfield of the Mountain Store said July was good as well. “I think the volume of people was great. It was obviously busy,” she said.
“The buying pattern was slightly different,” Heartfield observed. “People are buying less expensive items but there were a lot of people in town. So volume kicked in this July. August seems pretty good, but like usual, there is a good two weeks then an okay two weeks. Overall, I was pleased with the summer.”