March sales tax revenue clobbered as result of virus

“None of us asked for this”

By Mark Reaman

Early indications point to Crested Butte sales tax revenue being off by 50 percent in March compared to 2019 as a result of public health orders put in place to contain the coronavirus outbreak, and that worries town finance director Rob Zillioux.

“March is an important month for us,” he told the Town Council at a special meeting on April 27. “It is typically the fourth or fifth highest collection month. It could potentially be a proxy for summer.”

Zillioux said based on that indicator he projected town sales tax revenue could be off by about $2 million this year. He said while a few businesses chose to defer March sales tax payments, it would not significantly change the collection data.

“Bars and restaurants have been the most impacted at this point,” he noted. That category is off 40 percent year-to-date and was off a whopping 77 percent for March. “They had about a week to operate before the restrictions came into play,” Zillioux recalled. “Retail and lodging are down quite a bit as well.”

He reminded the council that online sales were continuing to grow and it was more important than ever to shop local as much as possible. “It is from that sales tax that we can do projects in town,” he said.

“The bottom line is that we all hope the reopening plan will work for July, August and September,” Zillioux said.

The council discussed the county’s reopening plan and determined there were still a lot of unknowns about details, depending on what happens when the first steps of lighter restrictions take place.

“Public Health director Joni Reynolds is trying to be thoughtful and listening to both the science and industry groups,” said town manager Dara MacDonald. “But all of this is quite fluid at the moment. New information comes up every day.”

Town Council member Chris Haver said the county’s business recovery teams have several efforts under way to be ready for when the time comes to open the county back up to tourism. “It is definitely tough for business,” he admitted. “As a lodge owner myself, that will be one of the last businesses to be allowed to open. I can’t afford to see another COVID-19 spike that takes us back to a full shutdown. We all have to be careful and businesses have to do what they can to operate safely. The community has to follow the health guidelines.”

“It is important to remind people that none of us asked for this,” added councilmember Will Dujardin. “We put our best minds to work on it and we are trying to build the capacity to deal with potential future outbreaks. That is why there is phasing to reopen. We need to see how it works.”

“Our businesses are really desperate,” said councilmember Mallika Magner. “Can we do anything to be more on the side of an aggressive opening instead of being in the middle?”

“We are trying to safely get to that point,” responded Haver. “Our opening needs to demonstrate that it is safe for people to travel here. We have to open in a way to give customers confidence in Crested Butte.”

“The goal should be focused on getting open in July,” said councilmember Mona Merrill.

“We have faith in the Public Health director and the incident command,” said Dujardin. “They are trying to do what they can to open safely.”