SoapBox City Election 2021 Paying for more than tourism As a local business owner and nonprofit volunteer, I ask you to consider voting “Yes” for the lodger’s tax. One of the goals of the tax is to help reestablish city funding for our beloved cultural nonprofits, which ended in 2008 due to the financial crisis. If the lodgers tax passes, 14 percent of the lodger’s tax will be dedicated to arts and culture. With this funding, our local cultural nonprofits, facilities and events can do even more to increase our residents’ quality of life. Grantees would include the Powerhouse Science Center, Art Center, Concert Hall, public art, etc., and also cultural events, such as the Taste of Durango, Film Fest and dozens of others. Every town has sidewalks and streets, but the ones you want to live in have a vibrant arts and culture scene. With 45 percent of the tax going to the city for public uses, the lodger’s tax will also fund transit, which helps alleviate the parking downtown and is vital to many of our community members to get to their jobs and other essential travel needs. The other 55 percent will go to sustainable tourism marketing, targeted to marketing groups for the shoulder/off seasons when so many of our local businesses need more revenue to keep their workforce employed. – Bill Carver, Durango Creative District board member
Jessika: 100 percent effort It is with whole-hearted enthusiasm that I am casting my vote for Jessika Buell for Durango’s City Council. I have known Jessika both personally and
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professionally for 15 years, and throughout all this time, she has demonstrated an exceptional ability to accomplish an extraordinary amount. Everything she does is with 100 percent effort as she is committed to this community, her employees and her family. Through her strong entrepreneurial experience as an employer and owner of three local businesses and co-founder of the Women’s Professional Network, she understands these challenges and opportunities. She understands the critical need for housing and the creation of diverse opportunities throughout the community. She is a problem solver, and with every challenge, she works hard to understand differing perspectives in order to move forward to achieve successful outcomes. Jessika’s enthusiasm for learning and supporting her community is strong, as demonstrated most recently with her efforts to help deliver meals to healthcare workers through our Feed the Frontline initiative. Jessika is a uniter and someone who couldn’t be better to work together with her colleagues on Council to represent our community. – Christina Rinderle, Durango
Go back to drawing board on tax The lodgers tax increase, if passed, will have no end date, and the allocations will be permanent. Fifty-five percent of the funds will go toward marketing to increase tourism, 20 percent is allocated for transit, 14 percent is for the arts and culture, leaving only 11 percent to address any above shortfalls and other tourism impacts. Durango has too many unmet and unfunded community needs to justify those allocations. We need funding for workforce housing, a new police and fire station, a new water treatment plant and storm drainage system,
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and funding to manage parks, trails and open space – all services that support our tourism economy. The impacts of a doubling of the tourism office budget to roughly $2.2 million per year has not been studied. And, the approximate $500,000 for transit is far from adequate, despite what the tax proponents suggest. Transit is a critical city service and a basic public good. Adequate dedicated funding is central to reducing vehicle congestion and adverse air quality tourism exacerbates. In 2018, due to a 50 percent reduction in state funding to be phased in over five years, the City’s Transportation Department cut the Crestview-160, Three Springs-Mercy, and portions of the FLC Transit routes. The Three Springs-Mercy route, a critical link between the hospital and Durango, was reinstated this year with COVID grant funding which will expire in December. The approximate $500k the lodgers tax could generate is entirely insufficient to reinstate and sustain these important bus routes or increase the service frequency our community desires. Furthermore, this allocation does not consider the millions in unfunded projects our community has prioritized in the Multimodal and ADA transition plans. A properly crafted lodgers tax will provide vital support to transit and many other city services that make Durango a great place to live and an attractive place to visit. Yes, we do need a lodgers tax increase, but not this one. It’s time to go back to the drawing board! – Ellen Stein, Multimodal Advisory Board Member, Durango
Capability, character: Frank As a former city councilor and mayor and a good friend of Frank Lockwood, I know he has the characteristics needed to be an excellent city councilor. 4
