The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The retail cost of all the things needed and wanted in Crested Butte’s five-year capital plan and community compass priority list is tens of millions of dollars. Who pays full retail in Crested Butte? Not many people, and the town won’t either. So, some of the high intensity panic over the town budget could probably be tapered a bit. Grants will be obtained, projects considered non-essential will be rightfully delayed. Council can prioritize however they want, and unless something dire happens (and it could), the town won’t collapse.
There is also understandable concern as trending revenues bump up against higher operating costs, but there’s no need to panic. It is okay to be nimble and make a few pivots. I’d suggest with all the new North Valley affordable housing projects coming online perhaps there isn’t a need in the next four or five years to budget $4 million for a new housing project, or to spend $6 million+ to turn the old fire hall into a “community hub” if town is indeed in a budget crunch.
Unless you’re a numbers nerd, government budgets are boring for most people. But under the surface of spreadsheets and projections, it’s where the action is for the next year. Budgets show what your elected officials feel are important. It’s where they spend your tax dollars and that spending sets the tone and direction of any town, county, HOA or family for the next 12 months.
Being a word wonk more than a numbers nerd, I won’t spend a ton of time expounding on the Crested Butte budget. I will say that for the many years I have covered the town of Crested Butte, the staff and councils have always tried to be responsible and transparent about where they allocate public funds. The current staff has done probably better than any to tie the numbers to a policy narrative and that makes it easier to follow the budget logic.
So, it was good news to hear Crested Butte town manager Dara MacDonald inform the council on Monday that the 2027 budget numbers look better than expected. She said the budget, while not totally rosy, is not “doom and gloom.” As reported a month ago, the town’s general fund has spendable reserves topping $8.3 million. That’s real money and above the state and local benchmarks that adds more millions in the fund balances to have as an emergency fund. Yeah, more than $4 million will be transferred to other town funds to bring them into balance but even the problem categories are doing better than expected and that is what reserves should be used for.
That solid financial nest egg is due in part to multiple years of better-than-expected sales tax revenues since Covid, better-than-expected property tax collections with last year’s increase to 10 mills for the street and alley fund, some deferred projects, several successful grants and continued vigilance by town department heads to “scrub” their individual budgets.
While I’ll be doing a deeper dive in a few weeks with what I consider the wrong path with the proposed excise tax on non-primary homes and vacant land in CB on this fall’s election ballot, this good budget news is a significant factor in the equation local voters should consider. As I reported in August, unless the AI Apocalypse (or another extreme drought this winter or out of control wildfires on The Bench) happens next year, the town will not go bankrupt any time soon. Given a steady, practical and conservative attitude toward the budget for decades, CB has set itself up pretty good. It has literally millions of dollars in “unassigned fund reserves.” There is no crisis need to raise another $1 million next year (and in perpetuity) with a second home tax in the upcoming $29+ million revenue budget.
At the same time, I think the council and staff are being responsibly prudent to look ahead and discuss strategy. The costs associated with doing business are going up quickly. It costs more to pave less street. Insurance premiums are rocketing skyward. Any construction project or maintenance work will cost more tomorrow than yesterday. So yes, it is wise to start preparing. The decision to appoint a bunch of citizen number nerds to a budget advisory committee is a good one. It sounds like they too are getting used to the differences between a public budget and a private budget. A town is not a business with Profit and Loss statements in the black or the red for government line items. While it’s great to show the equivalent of a profit with those seven-figure fund balance reserves, it is not the role of government to make money. It is to provide services and protect the health, safety and welfare of citizens. The town has done a good job with that and they’ve done it with some business sensibility.
Crested Butte has gotten into what I view as a bit of a consultant-a-palooza mindset with all its planning the last several years. In 2026 they will spend $738,300 on consultants. Not chicken feed. Next year they will budget a tad less. It makes sense to use consultants for things like IT and Human Resources services. More than $100K for parking enforcement?…meh. But the expenditure of $111,600 for a grant writing consultant has paid off with a return of $7.5 million to town in grants since 2023. Any private business would take that.
Congratulations to the town of Crested Butte for being in a solid financial position even as economic uncertainties loom on the horizon (as they often do). That’s why the council’s 5-2 push to put the second home tax on the ballot was, IMO, too rushed. The dust hadn’t settled with the small but impactful mill levy increase in the street and alley fund.
The town hadn’t looked deeply into details of other suggested revenue generating alternatives like a seasonal sales tax increase. The citizens’ budget advisory committee hasn’t had time to do their work and give their outside-the-box findings.
There will be some budget adjustments needed if council chooses to continue down its Community Compass path of things like developing a multi-million dollar “Community Hub” in the old fire station or building another affordable housing project in a few years. Yeah, it makes sense to budget six figures for the GoodDeed housing program and to keep the old fire hall standing instead of becoming the mouse equivalent of Whetstone Village. In the mid-range future, another tax, some more budget “scrubbing,” higher fees, might all be in play. But the push for the tax on second homeowners was in my opinion, rushed.
The numbers indicate there is time to explore a better, more thoughtful, less divisive solution to the economic red flags on the horizon before voters act on that new tax a month from now. There is time given the positive state of the budget. Take that time to really explore options for a better CB way to handle long-term budget challenges. We all see the costs but let’s find a smarter way to not pay retail like everyone else.
— Mark Reaman
