{"id":1318251,"date":"2020-02-14T17:26:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T00:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=993666"},"modified":"2020-02-14T17:26:21","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T00:26:21","slug":"garfield-county-commissioners-urge-river-district-to-ask-for-tax-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/garfield-county-commissioners-urge-river-district-to-ask-for-tax-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield County commissioners urge river district to ask for tax increase"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Colorado River flowing west from Glenwood Springs.<\/strong>
Thomas Phippen \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Garfield County board of commissioners\u2019 had some advice Monday to the Colorado River Water Conservation District: don\u2019t wait to ask for a property tax increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tough county for new taxes,\u201d Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said at a meeting Monday.<\/p>\n

River district Director Andy Mueller presented the commission with the possibility of asking taxpayers to double the existing mill levy for Garfield and 14 other counties. Currently, the River district levies about a quarter mill on properties, which has been enough since about 1992.<\/p>\n

Under the 2019 assessment rate, the river district\u2019s current quarter-mill levy comes out to $1.79 on a $100,000 home. If increased, the half-mill would cost the same home $3.58 in property taxes.<\/p>\n

But with cost increases, decreasing revenues from oil and gas development, and several crises looming over the Western Slope\u2019s water, the current tax is simply not enough, Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a declining revenue at a time when there is a very identifiable increased need for money for water projects in western Colorado,\u201d Mueller said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Mueller said the river district has cut costs in recent years, but sustaining current operations requires an increase.<\/p>\n

And the district wants to support important projects that are currently unfunded, like identifying and developing small high-mountain reservoirs.<\/p>\n

Those reservoirs could play a role in keeping streams flowing, and supplementing water for agriculture and municipalities \u201cduring times of severe hot, dry summers that we\u2019re having more and more of,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do it with the current revenue stream,\u201d he added, which is why he again asked the district\u2019s board<\/a> to look into placing the tax increase on the November 2020 ballot.<\/p>\n

The Garfield County commissioners expressed support for the mill levy ballot language.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, with the economy going as it is, if there\u2019s a good time to ask for a tax increase it\u2019s probably now,\u201d Jankovsky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer you wait, the harder it\u2019s going to be,\u201d Commissioner John Martin added.<\/p>\n

Jankovsky also took the opportunity to criticize Senate Bill 19-181, which called for stricter regulations on oil and gas development across Colorado to promote public health and safety.<\/p>\n

The effect, however, is that a thriving industry that supports Garfield County, as well as areas of the Front Range, will likely go away, according to Jankovsky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no more capital dollars coming into the state,\u201d he said, since it is easier to drill for oil and harvest natural gas elsewhere in the West.<\/p>\n

The majority of Garfield County\u2019s revenue comes from oil and gas developers, and the river district is in a similar situation, Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2013, 24 percent of our revenue came from the fossil fuel industry,\u201d Mueller told the commissioners. \u201cToday, it\u2019s close to 11 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the river district\u2019s board approves the ballot language, and voters approve the property tax in November, it would bring in an additional $4.9 million to the district.<\/p>\n

Mueller suggests using most of that for the special water projects. One example is the Windy Gap bypass, which would reconstruct a channel around the reservoir to preserve fish habitats and river flows.<\/p>\n

The river district\u2019s mission is \u201cto make sure we have water for all of our industries and economic activity, everything from recreation to agriculture,\u201d Mueller said, but that\u2019s impossible without sufficient funding.<\/p>\n

Municipalities in the eastern part of the state have far more money set aside for water projects, Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re literally 1\/10th to 1\/100th of what they spend,\u201d Mueller said, and cities further downstream in the Colorado River Valley, like Los Angeles and Phoenix, outspend the river district by a greater margin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, our district produces 60 percent of the water in the river every year,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to protect our water users, and make sure our environmental future and our economic future is preserved, we need a better war chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Colorado River flowing west from Glenwood Springs.Thomas Phippen \/ Post Independent The Garfield County board of commissioners\u2019 had some advice Monday to the Colorado River Water Conservation District: don\u2019t wait to ask for a property tax increase. \u201cThis is a tough county for new taxes,\u201d Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said at a meeting Monday. River […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-13 23:16:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}