By Ross Kribbs
Guest Column
With national politics polarizing the country minute by minute, it’s easy to forget that most politics is indeed still local. And in a town like Carbondale — enviably supportive and neighborly — the challenge isn’t in finding agreement, but in feeling free to disagree, particularly with those we respect and admire. It’s really uncomfortable. And really important.
So I’ll get to the uncomfortable point: I’m here to ask you to consider voting “no” on the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District (CRFPD) ballot issue 7D.
This ballot issue requests a 1.5% increase in sales tax within the district, and expects to raise $3.7 million annually for the CRFPD. An additional $30 million bond issue for the CRFPD is on the same ballot. Taken together, they set the organization on a new financial path, and it’s easy to appreciate the result. Every community can use more fire fighting capability and emergency call capacity, and every service-based organization could use more funds for training, hiring and replenishing reserves. And we certainly need more affordable housing in this valley: $21.5 million of the bond issue is earmarked for the construction of 24 units dedicated to paid and volunteer CRFPD members.
The sales tax initiative is my primary concern. When combined with a .25% proposal by supporters of an early learning district, this CRFPD proposal would push Carbondale sales tax to 10.15% and into the top six in all of Colorado. There is a psychological upper limit to sales tax rates, and we’d be heading there on the express train. At some point, shoppers draw the line and downtown retailers simply choose to locate elsewhere.
Both ballot proposals are made in good faith, but they don’t occur in a vacuum. Consider the many vital local organizations that rely on tax revenue streams to provide services to our community: RFTA, the Roaring Fork School District, CMC and the Town of Carbondale, including its own first responders, the Carbondale Police Department. Housing, hiring and capital improvements are fundamental challenges faced by them all. On the heels of this sizable tax request by the CRFPD, it becomes that much harder for any one of them to propose a similar initiative, no matter how small or how necessary.
So, we could argue what’s more important or who’s more deserving — plowed roads or safe schools, faster accident response or better pedestrian crossings, etc. — but we shouldn’t. We should talk.
Imagine a semiannual roundtable discussion among these entities, where future needs were discussed openly, where mutual support was the goal. Would a .5 % or .75% proposal have emerged from that type of meeting, threading the needle and leaving room for future revenue needs for the CRFPD and others? Quite possibly. Could that process help to separate each organization’s nice-to-haves from their want-to-haves and their absolutely-need-to-haves? I think so.
I spoke at length with CRFPD Fire Chief Rob Goodwin recently, and I can’t imagine a better person to lead this organization. His enthusiasm is infectious, his love for Carbondale self-evident and his knowledge thorough. I’m certain he’d rather be teaching the next generation of firefighters than dealing with confounding changes to state tax law, but he also took time to listen to my concerns. I want to thank him again here for that conversation.
My impression of Chief Goodwin — and of the CRFPD at large — leaves me confident that the department can survive and thrive for a year while this tax proposal is reconfigured. I know that’s not at all what they’d like to hear, but I promise my full-fledged advocacy for a plan grounded in stronger communication and collaboration.
In the meantime, I hope you’ll have a conversation with your neighbors, weigh the many needs of the community and feel free to vote as you see most prudent. I’ll be voting “yes” on 7E with some reservations, and “no” on 7D. I’m optimistic that we can avoid finger pointing and get to the holding-hands-together part in short order.
It just might take a hard decision or two to get that process started.
Ross Kribbs is a member of the Carbondale Board of Trustees. While this opinion represents his insight from serving in that position, it is not intended to speak for the board as a whole.