El Paso County voters will decide in November whether to refund $15 million in excess government revenue back to residents through property tax credits or use it to fund road infrastructure projects and deferred parks maintenance some county officials say are sorely needed.

Commissioners split the vote 3-2 Tuesday to add the question to the Nov. 2 ballot. Commissioners Holly Williams, Stan VanderWerf and Cami Bremer were in favor, with commissioners Carrie Geitner and Longinos Gonzalez opposed.

Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, ties increases in most local government revenues to a formula based on population growth and inflation. Excesses can only be used for voter-approved purposes.

Colorado Springs voters to decide on doubling parks tax

If voters approve the question this fall, the county will use $13 million of surplus funds to pay for backlogged roadway improvements like paving and repairing potholes on nearly 20 roads throughout El Paso County, according to a draft county resolution.

Another $2 million would fund deferred parks projects like capital improvements, trail preservation and wildfire mitigation at Bear Creek Park, Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Fountain Creek Regional Trail, Ute Pass Regional Trail, The Pineries Open Space and Fox Run Park, including a northern nature center.

The question will also ask voters’ permission to raise the county’s revenue cap to reflect actual 2021 revenue, increasing the limit from $285 million to about $300 million. Additional state and sales tax revenues coming to El Paso County through the rest of the year means the county won’t know the final revenue cap amount until next May, spokeswoman Natalie Sosa said by email.

Most of the excess comes from increased sales tax collections, County Controller Nikki Simmons said. Economic stimulus funds allocated to the county during the pandemic and small business funding, public safety grants, highway user taxes and state-allocated money for county programs have also put El Paso County over the legal limit.

Proponents said adding the question to the November ballot gives voters the power to decide how their tax dollars are spent.

“It’s a voter’s right to look at the county, examine where we’re spending money and allow them to express their intent,” Williams said.

A handful of residents spoke out this month against putting the question on the ballot, sharing concerns that increasing the county’s revenue cap would take away voters’ ability to decide how to spend tax revenues and that some road projects approved through prior tax retentions were still not completed.

Colorado Springs parks boards split on earmarking tax funds for open space purchases

“We’ve seen a lot of different allocations of funds and some of it has gone to waste,” resident Tom Carn said Tuesday. “Projects that have been supposedly fully funded are still not done. People should get their money back, and the state and counties should work within the budgets they approved.”

Gonzalez pointed to road improvements in his district at Fountain Mesa Road and Caballero Avenue, approved when voters last passed a tax retention question in 2017 to fund road projects. That project still hasn’t broken ground, he said.

“I find it difficult myself to support a (TABOR ballot question) for road projects when a District 4 project has not even broken ground yet,” he said.

Geitner argued though the question doesn’t ask for a tax increase, it deprives residents of their money because property owners would otherwise receive a refund.

The tax credits depend on a property’s value, Simmons said. If the measure fails and the money is refunded, the owner of a $350,000 single-family home would receive a one-time tax credit of about $20.

Gonzalez and Geitner also said federal economic stimulus funds coming to the county through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 have “artificially” boosted the local economy and people are still struggling financially because of the pandemic.

“I’ve seen far too many parents struggling with closed schools, too many people exhausted trying to find an affordable place to live, too many businesses closed …,” Geitner said this month. “I think now is the absolute wrong time to take this to our voters.”

Proponents said the ballot question could help fund much- needed maintenance on parks that were critical to residents’ physical and mental health during the pandemic.

Inflation has driven up parks maintenance, staffing and materials costs, Trails and Open Space Coalition Executive Director Susan Davies said. The additional $2 million that would be set aside for parks if voters approved the question in November would help offset those costs, and additional funding matches could bring in more money for parks maintenance, she said.

“That $2 million will go so much farther than just $2 million,” Davies said.

Briargate residents to vote on property tax inequity issue

VanderWerf said he supported the measure because the county must provide adequate roads and has faced “some substantive road challenges.” A report from Public Works this month showed more than 60% of El Paso County’s paved roads and 45% of its rural roads are in poor shape or need reconstructing.

Gonzalez said Tuesday he didn’t feel the board adequately considered other options, like deferring placing a tax retention question on the ballot until 2022 so the county can better recognize how federal relief funds, in particular, are affecting its revenue limits.

El Paso County will refund $7.1 million in excess 2020 revenues to residents through property tax credits regardless of how the ballot question moves forward, said Lori Seago, senior assistant county attorney.

Equity and inclusion in the outdoors discussed in Colorado Springs

Monument voters to decide on move to home rule government, sales tax increase for police services