CB begins deep dive into financial strategy

Series of spring meetings

By Mark Reaman

While Crested Butte finances are in good shape, the town is not so flush as to pay for all the things the council and staff would love to see in the next five years. In fact, according to a recent analysis, several of the town funds such as the Transit and Mobility fund, the Capital fund and the Parks, Rec and Trails fund, could find themselves in the red starting in the next couple of years.

At the request of council, town manager Dara MacDonald is organizing several work sessions this spring to flesh out the town’s financial strategy. The first one was held Monday, March 16.

The town “is in a strong financial position, able to maintain operations and services without too much anxiety,” a memo from MacDonald informed the council. “However, several structural trends suggest that the town’s current trajectory may not be sustainable over the long term without policy adjustments. At the same time, the town has identified a number of important priorities and projects that exceed current financial capacity.”

MacDonald said town has recently done “a ton of planning work. Now, the question is what can we afford and where do we want to go? We are seeing future financial gaps with the town’s hopes and aspirations.”

She said to remain sustainable, the town can focus on prioritizing projects and reducing spending, raise revenues or do a combination of both. She outlined the high priorities of protecting core services and maintenance. Those high priorities include funding current obligations like Mountain Express. The medium priorities would be things like pursuing housing and community spaces. The low priorities would be amenities like park upgrades and new recreation facilities.

“We are looking at structural deficits with current revenues and that doesn’t take into account something like another pandemic or a wildfire impacting the valley,” said councilmember Kate Guibert. “It’s important for us to also understand we might not have the current state forever.”

“That goes to our fund reserves policy,” said mayor Ian Billick. “Did we go too far in reducing them from holding 100% of annual spending? I’m a fan for planning for things like an alternative water source on the Slate River (that can provide fallback in case of something like a wildfire down Kebler). And my understanding is that resilient communities have great social capital and that is more valuable than money. So that is a priority.”

Billick said MacDonald’s listing of the town’s highest priorities didn’t allow much wiggle room. As for medium priorities, most of the council said planning for what to do with the old fire station at Third and Maroon should be a priority. The idea of a “community hub” eventually occupying that space was important for most councilmembers.

“It is such an important space. Part of our discussion has to be how do we use it even if we can’t invest a lot of money in it,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska.

“We might have to take small steps toward our aspirational goal,” said Guibert.

“That site is ripe for a public-private partnership,” said Billick. “There should be ways to creatively keep cost controls.”

“The planning for that building at the very least should be a high priority,” suggested councilmember John O’Neal.

MacDonald assured him planning for that building’s future was proceeding.

Billick said the council and staff should look for projects that might not cost a lot but could have significant impacts and be done easily.

“We’re a prudent council but the community might prioritize different things such as parks,” said Guibert.

“All of these priorities came out of public feedback during our planning processes,” said MacDonald.

“I’d say the community in general is more focused on parks and rec than the council,” said Billick. “We see the deeper situation, but we can’t be too much out of step. That’s why renovating Jerry’s Gym is a priority for me. But we need to work out the relationship with MetRec for a funding partnership.”

“Climate and energy retrofits are a priority for me,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone. “And more generally, I think we should keep what we have or replace what we’ve lost versus focusing on something we’ve never had before.”

On the issue of affordability, “I’d like to look at a possible rebate on property taxes for long-term residents,” said Billick. “Can we provide proactive relief for those who really need it? I’d like to tie it to longevity in the community more than age.”

“Longevity in the community has a lot to do with social capital,” agreed O’Neal.

The council was open to having staff explore such a measure.

Speaking of exploring measures, the council was also open to gathering more information to explore a so-called sales tax equalization measure. That would essentially be a potential excise tax on vacant second homes in town. See March 20 issue.

The council discussed if there were ways to create opportunities to attract people to the trades and fill high paying jobs like plumbers and electricians that benefit the community. O’Neal wanted to look at ways that could potentially encourage families to flourish successfully with several generations living in the valley.

Councilmember Mallika Magner more than once emphasized it would not help affordability in town to raise taxes at all on locals. “Are there any other possible revenue sources?” she asked.

“Not really. Those are the big ones for government, but we would need to fully vet all the ideas,” responded MacDonald.

The next financial work session is scheduled for May 4.