KSJD Local Newscast - October 17, 2024

Proponents for a public safety sales tax in Montezuma County made their case Tuesday at a League of Women Voters presentation in Cortez. The 1 percent tax would provide an estimated $8.1 million annually to fund the sheriff’s office, detention center, and drug task force. Funding for the sheriff’s office has been a source of contention between the sheriff and the county commissioners of late, but they all voice agreement on the possible benefits of the tax. On Tuesday, Sheriff’s Detective Lt. John Hargraves said the tax would free up money in the county’s hard-pressed general fund, which would no longer provide revenues for the sheriff’s office. Hargraves said any excess revenues in the general fund could be refunded to property owners as a mill-levy credit. Montezuma County is one of just a handful of Colorado’s 64 counties that does not have its own sales tax. It relies on property taxes, but those revenues have been declining because the state legislature has been reducing property taxes statewide. Commissioner Jim Candelaria described it as a constant ratcheting down. Sheriff Steve Nowlin told the small audience Tuesday that he has gone from having 72 full-time-equivalent employees to 62, and the detention center is so short of staff that he has to pay employees overtime to work extra shifts. In addition to the public safety sales tax, county voters will be deciding on a half-cent sales tax for the Cortez Fire Protection District and two different mill-levy questions in the Montezuma-Cortez and Dolores school districts.