City Councilwoman Angela Dougan said she is still considering whether or not to support an extension of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority sales tax.
“I have to raise my concerns,” said Dougan, one of three City Council members on the PPRTA board.
Among Dougan’s contentions is that the mayor isn’t a member of PPRTA board and that the majority of the sales tax revenue is generated in the city of Colorado Springs but the city only has three representatives on the 10-member board.
The council on Tuesday will consider an intergovernmental agreement among the participating governments that spells out the make up of the PPRTA board and what projects would be funded if voters approve the tax extension, which is poised to appear on the November ballot.
PPRTA was approved by voters in 2004; 55 percent of the one-cent sales tax goes to a voter-improved list of capital projects, 35 percent to road and bridge maintenance and 10 percent to metro transit improvements.
Dougan also questions whether the “right projects” to be funded with the proposed sales tax extension have been selected.
“I just feel we need to slow down,” she said. “We need to do this right. We need to look at the IGA. We need to look at the funding. We need to look at the projects.”
The sales tax expires Dec. 31, 2014, but supporters of the sales tax extension want to put it on the ballot in November and ask voters to extend it to 2024.
“Are we doing this when we should? Two years out is too early,” Dougan said.
While a list of projects has been identified, Dougan is concerned that a future board could decide to shelve all the projects in the city.
“The contract has to have teeth to make sure we are protected,” she said.
“Technically, the board could vote to fund all the county projects, all the Calhan projects, all the Ramah projects, and never touch a city project,” Dougan added.
“We have to look at this IGA, and now is the time. Just going with, ‘Well, we never had this problem before.’ That’s not how we build contracts. We all know at some point in time someone may not play nice.”
Let the sales tax be spent where the sales tax is collected. That should make it fair for everyone.
Mrs. Dougan appears to be exercising warranted caution in her fears the representation on the board could conceivably lead to a disproportionate distribution of funds.
Has a straightforward explanation of the differing stories coming from the city and from the county on the matter of road and bridge funds collected by the county been brought forward?
Is there anybody with factual info on this matter who can direct me to it?
Let the tax expire.
Ms. Dougan,
many residents of Colorado Springs are also residents of El Paso County.
o
In general, everything and everyone that comes to or leaves the city goes through the county.
If we shortchange county infrastructure, what then ?
Representation on the PPRTA board should be proportional to funding and that should be in the IGA. This proposed extension looks too much like the US relationship with the UN – the US pays the majority of the costs, while the UN works against its interests.
Putting this on the ballot two years out raises suspicion. This ballot measure smells fishy to me.
Ms. Dougan,
1) Voters approve the project lists as well as the tax extension. Neither the PPRTA Board nor any member entity now or in the future will change the project list submitted on the ballot. The entities submitted project lists to meet their projected sales tax revenues. That projection is the portion of POPULATION within the members’ census tracts. These issues have been addressed by the PPRTA Citizens’ Advisory Board working closely with the member entity staffs. Calhan is eager for their ONLY project during the proposed extension period, 2015 – 2024 that will chip seal their 8th Street.
2) The mayor has vetted the proposed project lists several times as it evolved since last fall.
Mr. Martin, the only issue is the capital projects list. The underlying PPRTA charter, IGAs for Maintenance and Transit and membership rules / allocation will not change. That means the total sales taxes from all member entities will be distributed to the entities by their population. Board membership was established by the charter members as the entity was formed in 2005 in response to the voters approval in 2004.
BTW, sales taxes are collected locally by businesses in all member entities and paid / reported to the State which is distributed to the taxing authorities with their portion in the month after they are collected. That means the money is returned to the region through the PPRTA which “banks” it until entities submit their “bill” for expenses on projects approved by the PPRTA board. Operationally the PPRTA staff are simply tracking projects according to the ballot project lists for each entity and accounting for revenue distribution and bill payments. The staff does not perform work in behalf of any project except to monitor project starts according to the ballot language and payments for work completed.
If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will do. I commend Ms Dougan for being prudent enough to ask the right questions. If the responsible parties can’t or won’t provide cogent answers, they shouldn’t expect any taxpayer support.
How did this incompetent get elected? A housewife who clearly from the last Utility Board Meeting is in so far over her head she had to be singled out by another council member for her stupidity. She is nothing more than a cronie for the mayor. Too bad she is not up for re-election so we can get her out of a position she is clearly significantly under qualified to be in.
That anything but Bruce vote does not seem to be working out that well. But in the fifty plus years I have been in this city this is by far the the least qualified and that followed the worst council of all time.
sounds like Ray Kruger knows more about PPRTA then Councilwoman and PPRTA member Dougan does. City staff have presented project list to Council 2 times already and there have been public meetings. Ms. Dougan and Mayor Bach both signed a no new tax pledge written up from Americans for Prosperity so it wont be surprising if they dont support it. This community likes to screw itself constantly, so rejecting this would be par for course in Colorado Springs.
The fact the Councilwoman Dougan and the Mayor signed that (inane) no new tax pledge shouldn’t really be an issue. This is an existing tax that is the City and other RTA partners are seeking to extend the capital portion (55% of 1 cent – the rest is in perpetuity for transportation maintenance cost and helping to cover some ofthe operating costs of the Metro buses). Our famiily has reviewed the draft project list and think it’s better than the first because it actually focuses more on making what we have work better and for more people than a bunch of huge projects. We like that it has a lot of bridge replacements, money for the bike system, important street connections, and finally some money for filling in missing sidewalks that are everywhere. Let’s get this thing passed and give the staff at the RTA communities time to plan ahead and get the projects lined up and ready to go right of out the date in 2015.
The last thing we need in this town is to have more developers deciding where to spend our tax dollars. I’m not against spending tax dollars to improve our city, but let the citizens decide where not special interest.