By Marshall Dunham
Staff Writer
In a regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 1, the Pagosa Springs Town Council unanimously agreed to repeal Resolution 2012-20, otherwise known as the Economic Development Incentive Program.
According to agenda documentation for the meeting, the town first implemented the economic incentive program in 2008, along with Archuleta County, due to the poor state of the economy at the time.
The agenda documentation states that “a range of economic development incentives were offered to businesses for the purposes of attraction, expansion, and/or retention.”
Town Manager Greg Schulte explained this further at the meeting, stating that the economic development incentives, “for the most part, consisted of sales and property tax rebates.”
The county allowed its program to expire in 2010.
The agenda documentation goes on to explain that, in late 2013 and early 2014, the local economy turned around.
The documentation cites sales tax and lodgers’ tax as some of the main reasons as to why the local economy is doing better, going on to state, “with the opening of Walmart in May 2015, sales tax has been on a record trend and 2015 looks to be the best sales tax year on record.”
The documentation explains that, because the economy is doing so well, the reasons used for the economic incentives program are “no longer valid.”
The full version of this story is available in the print edition and e-edition of the Pagosa Springs SUN. Subscribe today by calling (970)264-2100 or click here.
