The Montezuma County commissioners this week said no to both a sales-tax question and a proactive emergency declaration.
During their workshop Monday, the commissioners heard from a representative of Magellan Strategies, the firm they hired to conduct a survey about voters’ views on a possible county sales tax. Director of survey research Courtney Sievers told them that, based on the survey results, she did not believe the 1-cent sales tax would pass if put on the ballot this year.
Sievers said the firm conducted a random survey of 500 registered county voters that had a margin of error of 3.99 percent.
It found that, when initially asked whether they would vote for the tax, 48 percent said no, 42 percent yes, with 10 percent undecided.
After they were given information about where the funding would go and why it was needed, there was a 5-point swing, with 47 percent now saying they would vote yes. However, that still was not more than 50 percent.
Women, Democrats, and senior citizens were more supportive of the tax.
Asked to explain the results, Sievers said, “You’re always going to have a handful of residents that are going to be against any tax increase.” In addition, she said, respondents expressed feelings of “tax fatigue” and concerns about the current cost of living. Those opposed to the tax also voiced some distrust of county government, called for more transparency, and were concerned about fiscal responsibility.
The board said there isn’t enough time before November to persuade voters of the need for the tax, which would have provided additional funding for the Sheriff’s Office, Road and Bridge Department, and county clean-up efforts.
“The time frame we have to educate the voters out there and show them the numbers is relatively short and I don’t know whether we can overcome that or not,” said Commissioner Kent Lindsay.
Commissioners Gerald Koppenhafer and Jim Candelaria agreed.
“The way the whole economy is and with everything else that’s going on right now, it’s not a good situation,” said Koppenhafer.
After a lengthy discussion, they also said no to a suggestion by emergency manager Jim Spratlen that they declare a local disaster emergency because of extreme fire danger, critical fire weather conditions, and drought conditions within the county.
He said it’s not unheard of to declare a disaster emergency simply because of the danger of a catastrophe.
A proactive disaster declaration, Spratlen said, would “open up that financial piece so we can procure items or resources immediately – we don’t have to send out an RFP [request for proposals].”
But the board said the declaration would be premature.
Candelaria said drought conditions have been here for the past two decades.
“Have they worsened? Sure. Has fire danger worsened? Sure. But when you use the term ‘disaster,’ it sends the message of a disaster happening,” Candelaria said
But Spratlen said the word “disaster” doesn’t mean to state or federal officials precisely what it means in the dictionary.
“It means we’re getting ready, kind of like a hurricane sitting off the coast.”
He said in the case of Hurricane Dorian, an extremely powerful tropical cyclone in 2019, there were disaster declarations before it arrived in the United States.
Then, he said, “it came up to the coastline [of the United States], didn’t do a thing, and went north. They undeclared or got rid of the resolution.”
But the commissioners said they can pass a disaster declaration very quickly if one should become necessary.
“I just don’t want to be the kid that cries wolf,” Candelaria said.
The commissioners made the formal decisions not to go ahead with the sales-tax proposal or the disaster declaration at their regular meeting on Tuesday.
