Crested Butte council wonders if word is getting out about sales tax increase

Staff looking at two different budgets

The Crested Butte Town Council last summer agreed to put an issue before the voters asking for a .5 percent increase in town sales tax, to be earmarked for parks and-recreation maintenance. At the October 6 council meeting, the elected representatives wondered if the word was getting out to voters about the need for the increase.

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Under state law, town money and time cannot be used to campaign for the issue. Mayor Aaron Huckstep cited an April council directive to get the information before voters in late summer and fall. He wondered if that had been done.
Town manager Todd Crossett said the staff had been a bit busy with a major special event in August and September but they had made a presentation on the facts to the Rotary Club in August. “It has been difficult to find a good time to get on other groups’ agendas,” he said.
Councilman Jim Schmidt said that while the council was prohibited from campaigning for the ballot issue, the council members as individuals could go out and campaign for the initiative.
“The ballots come out in a week,” Schmidt pointed out. “Personal advocacy is okay. We can’t send out the staff. There was other stuff going on so we are off the hook.”
“We are looking at getting two distinct budgets this fall,” said Crossett. “One for if the issue passes and one if it doesn’t. We can’t stretch things much more. We are running out of road. So we will have a budget with a scaled-down parks budget if it doesn’t pass.”
In response to a question from Huckstep, Crossett said the top three stated goals of the council were to deal with the proposed VCUP (Voluntary Clean Up) on the proposed molybdenum mine, to find a permanent fix to the parks and rec funding, and to find more space for changing rooms at Big Mine Park. The VCUP application was recently withdrawn.
“I think we need at least a temporary fix with the changing rooms through maybe some trailers at Big Mine,” said Schmidt. “Let’s find out how much it would cost to rent [a trailer] for three or four months.”
Crossett said an overall Big Mine planning process was on the brink of completion and there had been talk of using some of the Bud Light event donation money to address the Big Mine space situation.
But back to the parks and rec sales tax increase proposal. “It seems clear that if this doesn’t pass, the town will be saying that we should spend less money on parks,” said Crossett. “And we will have to do that.”
“Or the people will say they didn’t have enough information,” said councilman Chris Ladoulis.
Crossett said the town conducted a public process with several meetings that ended with support for the idea of moving ahead with a sales tax increase to fund parks.
“You can look at the school issue and see a group that stepped up to advocate for its tax issue and that hasn’t happened here,” said Crossett.