{"id":13082,"date":"2026-03-04T13:43:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-narrows-details-for-sales-tax-ballot-question\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:13","slug":"county-narrows-details-for-sales-tax-ballot-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-narrows-details-for-sales-tax-ballot-question\/","title":{"rendered":"County narrows details for sales tax ballot question"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Voting
Voting booths are set up at a polling place. (Associated Press file photo)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma County commissioners on Tuesday agreed to move forward with ballot language for a potential 1% countywide sales tax in the November election.<\/p>\n

The board revisited earlier conversations about how to divide the new revenue if voters approve the tax.<\/p>\n

Previous talks proposed splitting the money evenly between the Road and Bridge Department and public safety needs as officials look to replace dwindling funds.<\/p>\n

After Tuesday\u2019s meeting, the board settled on drafting ballot language that would allocate 60% of the tax revenue to the Sheriff\u2019s Office and 40% to the county\u2019s Road and Bridge Department if voters approve the measure.<\/p>\n

During Monday\u2019s workshop, Commissioner Jim Candelaria said the original 50\/50 split idea mirrored recommendations from the county\u2019s 1997\u201398 comprehensive plan, which suggested an even division would fit the departments\u2019 budgets.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer questioned whether a 50-50 split reflects current fiscal realities, noting differences in mill levies and each department\u2019s total budget.<\/p>\n

For operating costs of the county jail and Sheriff\u2019s Office, including salaries and benefits, the county will spend about $7.3 million this year, according to the budget. County officials have said previously that this amount is a 5% increase from last year and represents about 44% of the general fund.<\/p>\n

The Road and Bridge Department\u2019s budget is about $6.1 million this year for salaries, benefits and the cost of maintaining its fleet, according to the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t know that it needs to be 50\/50,\u201d Koppenhafer said, expressing concern about directing roughly $4 million to the road department if the tax were to generate an estimated $8 million annually.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with the difference in the mill levy the Road and Bridge Department has and the difference in their budget compared to the S.O. (Sheriff\u2019s Office), a 60-40 split would be the better split,\u201d Koppenhafer said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

County Administrator Travis Anderson said earlier assessments projected a 1% sales tax could generate a little more than $8 million, though Candelaria noted later that revenue may fluctuate from year to year.<\/p>\n

After that initial discussion, commissioners said Tuesday they had reviewed department budgets more closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe S.O. (Sheriff\u2019s Office) is a higher amount with the jail standards and stuff they are going to have to deal with, I agree with them that it shouldn\u2019t actually be 100% equal,\u201d Candelaria said.<\/p>\n

Koppenhafer proposed a 60-40 split favoring the Sheriff\u2019s Office, calling it \u201cthe better split.\u201d Commissioners agreed to that division, the 1% rate and to write ballot language exempting sales of agriculture equipment only.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure is still in development as officials work with Magellan Strategies, a marketing firm, on voter research and messaging ahead of the fall election.<\/p>\n

After Tuesday\u2019s meeting, commissioners held an executive session on a legal question related to the firm.<\/p>\n

That question asked: \u201cWhat are the rules for government actors and employees as it relates to discussing or promoting a proposed ballot measure?\u201d<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

approved, the major revenue share goes to public safety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18802,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13082\/revisions\/18802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13082"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}