While roads, fire mitigation and personnel costs dominated the Town of Marble’s estimated spending this year and next, the Town’s General Fund balance is projected to grow.
The trustees discussed a first draft of a 2027 General Fund budget on Thursday, Sept. 3, which accounts for a 7.7% estimated expenditure increase, from $337,207 in 2026 to $363,220 next year. Town Administrator Ron Leach, who put together the draft, also expects town revenue will decrease by 1.3%, from an estimated $413,050 in 2026 to $407,727 in 2027.
Marble’s 2027 General Fund balance, however, is estimated to maintain a steady increase given that the town’s estimated revenue still surpasses its expenditures. Leach estimated the town will see a 2027 beginning balance of $531,328 and an end balance of $575,836, before $15,000 in budget reallocations.
Expenditures
“There’s really not many big, huge numbers on the expenditure sheet, other than the street maintenance and snow plow is just a wild card,” Leach told the trustees. “We have no idea how much it’s going to snow this winter, so we always just budget big for snow removal. And street maintenance, we always try to keep it at or around $20,000 each year.”
The proposed 2027 budget allocated a total of $30,000 to snow and ice removal, a $15,000 increase from the 2026 estimate. Street maintenance also saw an increase in tax dollars, seeing a proposed 2027 allocation of $20,000 compared to a $15,000 estimated expenditure in 2026.
Leach’s proposed budget also places more funding toward “Earth Day/fire mitigation expenses,” distributing $20,000 toward the category, as opposed to an expected $10,000 for 2026. He added that the town could pursue a Colorado State Forest Service grant to help it remove brush and material that pose wildfire risk.
Leach estimated that the town will spend the most, compared to any other expenditure category, on wages and benefits in 2026, at $143,000, which he proposed increasing to $150,000 in 2027.
Revenue
The largest portion of the town’s revenue was from its general sales tax, generating an estimated $190,000 in 2026, 46% of the total estimated revenue. The draft proposes a decrease to $170,000 in 2027, 41.7% of the total proposed.
“Sales tax is the lion’s share of our revenue,” Leach said.
Campground revenue generated an estimated $59,000 in 2026, but is expected to decrease to $55,000 in 2027. The town runs a campground “in the heart of Marble,” charging between $38 and $60 per night, depending on the size of the lot, according to marblecampground.com
Marble’s general property tax also contributed a significant amount to the town’s revenue, generating an estimated $41,000 in 2026. Leach expects the property tax revenue to dip to $39,277 in 2027, noting that the town’s property values decreased for the first time in many years.
Colorado Stone Quarries’ lease agreement with the town generated an estimated $34,000 in 2026, and is expected to remain the same in 2027.
The town also made an estimated $22,000 from August’s Marble Fest, which Leach expects to remain relatively consistent next year at $20,000.
Marble must adopt next year’s budget by Dec. 15.
Mayor Ryan Vinciguerra suggested Marble consider hiring someone to help the town pursue its goals, rather than just pursuing grant funding “here or there.”
“I think there’s a lot of benefits to having somebody whose role it is to help the town figure out, not the Master Plan, but a little more task specific in the areas we would like to see improvements, and help us narrow those down a little bit,” Vinciguerra said.
In other news …
Beaver Lake Lodge & Cabins Owner Karen Good notified the trustees that she would like a variance to move a structure, which the lodge recently purchased on 2nd Street, to the northwest corner of the lodge’s property.
Good said the lodge had bought what was formerly an ice cream shop and had hoped to convert it to employee housing, but reevaluated the idea after seeing the renovation required to make it functional. She still wants to use it as a guest cabin, but has no room on the lodge’s property apart from the northwest property line, which borders a public alley.
The trustees agreed to revisit the idea at a public hearing during Marble’s November meeting.