The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
It’s not looking better
By Mark Reaman
There were not a lot of surprises for the town of Crested Butte when it looked at its first quarter financials. Sales tax collections were down about 20 percent compared to 2019, thanks in large part to March sales tax being off 45 percent as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.
“The bars and restaurants category got hammered,” said town finance director Rob Zillioux. “They were down 40 percent for the quarter. That was after a pretty healthy January and February but they were off 45 percent in March, which is a big month. March was challenging.”
Zillioux noted that no real estate transfer tax has come in since April 1. Short-term rental tax revenue was off 29 percent compared to last year. Overall town revenues in the first quarter were down 12 percent compared to a year ago.
“I would expect the next and third quarters to be worse,” Zillioux told the council at the May 18 meeting. “I still expect the town to be down about $2 million in sales tax revenue by the end of the year.”
He did say the 51 local businesses to receive relief grants were very appreciative of the funding that amounted to $125,000. “People were very grateful,” he reported.
“We will be playing along as it goes along this summer,” summarized mayor Jim Schmidt. “There is no real expectation that we will be back to 100 percent of budget.”
