The City Council Tuesday night voted unanimously to back extending Boulder County’s 21-year-old transportation tax that supporters say funds a variety of roadway improvements and transit efforts.
Mayor Joan Peck said the transportation measure should have been included in last week’s package of county measures the city council voted to support. Those were tax increases for wildfire mitigation and emergency services.
The transportation tax was first approved in 2001 by Boulder County voters that allowed for a 0.1% (one cent on a $10 purchase) countywide transportation sales tax. In 2007, voters approved an extension of the sales tax through 2024.
According to Boulder County, the Transportation Sales Tax helps fund:
- Roadway improvements
- Mobility
- Priority transit programs
- Pollution reduction
- Congestion reduction
- Safety
- Efficiency of alternative modes and traffic flows
- Road widening projects
- Addition of shoulders appropriate for cycling where approved
- Repair and construction of roads and bridges
In a recent email to Longmont Chamber of Commerce members, chamber officials said they appreciate the work that the county does in the transportation arena, the email states. “However, the lack of a sunset clause, thus allowing the tax to be levied in perpetuity, was not favored by the majority” of chamber members,” the email states.
The current tax does not expire until 2024 so the chamber “looks forward to working with the county on a revised ballot initiative that takes this into consideration, should the current question fail,” the email states.
