{"id":73285,"date":"2016-07-18T15:59:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T21:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/workforce-development-board-weighs-airport-ballot-item\/"},"modified":"2016-07-18T21:59:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T21:59:31","slug":"workforce-development-board-weighs-airport-ballot-item","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/workforce-development-board-weighs-airport-ballot-item\/","title":{"rendered":"Workforce development board weighs airport ballot item"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Southwest Colorado Workforce Development Board on Wednesday heard the pros and cons about asking voters for a tax increase to fund an $85 million terminal and upgrades at the La Plata County Airport.<\/span>SHAUN STANLEY\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Arguments for and against an airport expansion ballot question this fall were presented Wednesday to the Southwest Colorado Workforce Development Board.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure would raise taxes \u2013 property, rather than sales, tax is the favored option \u2013 to cover about half a proposed $85 million terminal and other upgrades to the Durango-La Plata County Airport.<\/p>\n

Roger Zalneraitis, executive director of the La Plata County Economic Development Alliance, said the business sector is stressed the longer a new terminal is postponed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked professional services why they moved here, and they give four reasons: the Durango \u2018brand,\u2019 Fort Lewis College, good Internet service in the downtown area and the airport,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no inexpensive way to do this, but of the options assessed, this is the best one. We\u2019re notoriously behind on infrastructure. Let\u2019s stop being behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

But board member Daniel Greer said La Plata County is famous for inhibiting business growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cLa Plata County is notorious for running off businesses that want to come in here. Why in the world would we support an airport expansion if we\u2019re not going to support businesses?\u201d Greer said. \u201cChevron doesn\u2019t have a big office here for a reason. BP has a sizeable office, but it\u2019s nothing compared to San Juan County, New Mexico \u2013 for a reason. You guys (the county) tried to run off GCC (King II coal mine owners). You\u2019ve done a horrible job with business development. Why should we support you now?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Economic Development Alliance maintains that an airport is a key component among three initiatives, including a potential business park and high-speed Internet, that will advance the economy.<\/p>\n

Dave Peters, a retired Chevron executive who argued the expansion, said because county revenue is on the decline and other tax increase proposals will be floated to voters this year, the airport should wait.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Federal Aviation Administration data show the airport\u2019s enplanements saw a decrease of 3.6 percent from 2014 to 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to be careful and prioritize,\u201d Peters said. \u201cI support an expansion, but you\u2019re going to get one bite at the apple, and this is lower in the queue than other initiatives. If you want your best chance, wait a year, maybe two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zalneraitis said this year is the right one to float the question, in part because the terminal\u2019s completion would be about four years away if construction began today.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, voters are savvy,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether you put all the tax increases on this year or stage them one at a time, taxes are still going up. I don\u2019t see the benefit of holding them.\u201d<\/p>\n

County and city officials will continue to discuss the ballot item, among other topics, at a 7:30 a.m. Thursday work session at the county Administration Building, 1101 East Second Ave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proposed tax increase would pay for $85 million terminal and upgrades<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[791,915,374,13,167,29,1526],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ballot-initiatives","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-economic-development","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead","tag-newsletter","tag-taxation-and-budget"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73285","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=73285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73285"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}