- Chaffee tourism has exploded: Visits to Chaffee County have increased dramatically over the last 5 years – an over 50% increase.
- While of great benefit to Chaffee businesses (especially STRs, hotels, and restaurants), these new visits have impacted Chaffee roads and public safety services.
- Almost a third of calls to Chaffee County Emergency Services during the summer are to care for visitors from outside of Chaffee County.
- At the same time, inflation has hit the county budget hard:
- Costs of maintaining the County’s 560 miles of roads – grading, dust mitigation, road repairs and improvements, and snow removal – have nearly doubled in the last few years while state law prohibits use of general funds for road and bridge maintenance.
- Other allowable sources of funding for county road maintenance (State-run Highway User Tax Fund and Federal Payment in Lieu of Taxes) are not keeping up with actual costs.
- The cost of ambulances and sheriff’s patrol vehicles have risen sharply and new required equipment such as body cams have added to costs.
- If you don’t want our roads to suffer more, and support public safety, VOTE YES on 1A.
- Not one cent of the proposed tax increase will fall on Chaffee citizens unless they stay in a hotel or motel.
- Someone has to pay for the impact of increasing numbers of tourists – it’s either residents or tourists, which is why the following counties are also proposing to raise their taxes on tourists:
- Custer increase to 6%
- Eagle increase to 4%
- Gilpin to 6%
- Ouray to 6%
- Park to 6%
- Routt to 6%
- Chaffee to 5.9%
So, Chaffee Residents, VOTE YES on 1A to have the tourists pay their fair share.
For more facts – go here.
