During a work session held by the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the board heard from Executive Director of Tourism Jennifer Green, who presented the recommended 2027 Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board’s budget.
Green indicated that the tourism board voted to recommend this budget to both the county and the Town of Pagosa Springs during its regular meeting held on Sept. 15.
According to Green’s presentation, the total revenues proposed in the 2027 budget is listed at $1,560,000, and the estimated 2026 revenues are listed at $1,470,500.
She noted that, currently “we only have county lodging tax through the second quarter.”
She added, “Oddly enough, last year, Q3 was the lowest quarter of county lodging tax collections, which I think is wrong.”
She explained that, “with that in mind,” her projected number for the county for 2027 is about $500,000.
“I am anticipating the town’s lodging tax increasing, mainly because construction will be over. We are planning a very large push to make sure everybody knows that the construction is over,” she said.
Green noted that tourism is “basically budgeting flat compared to what we thought was going to happen in 2026.”
She added, “Obviously, we’ve had a lot of headwinds this year with tourism. It’s not just Pagosa. We want to make sure that’s clear.”
Green also indicated that the risk of wildfires has heavily impacted “where people are choosing to vacation in the summer.”
She explained that the tourism board is not pursuing any grants through the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) because, after receiving grants for three consecutive years, the board is required to take a year off from applying for grants through the CTO.
Green then reviewed personnel expenses, which is listed at a total of $496,782 and includes four full-time employees and two part-time employees.
“All employees report to Executive Director,” Green’s presentation states.
Green’s presentation also indicates that $330,000 is budgeted for infrastructure expenses, with $75,000 of that going to the Pagosa Area Recreation Coalition (PARC).
“And I put that in there because I heard through the grapevine that Commissioner [John] Ranson and council member [Gary] Williams had discussed using lodging tax to help provide funding with PARC,” Green said.
Green then explained that $33,140 is budgeted for data expenses for services used through Placer.AI and Visa credit card transaction data.
“So, we will have three years of historic data when we purchase Visa transaction data. That will give us a better idea of the sales tax impact from our visitors,” she said.
Green’s presentation also shows that $107,000 is set aside for events, with $32,000 for fireworks, $40,000 for outside organizer event funding and $35,000 for town events (Comfest, Old Fashion Christmas, Big Spring Clean and the holiday lighting contest).
She noted that the cost of fireworks over the last 10 years had been split evenly between the town sales tax and lodging tax, but is now coming completely out of lodging tax.
She explained that the tourism board is also being asked to cover the cost of the town’s Comfest events.
Green noted that the $40,000 set aside for outside event organizers is a reduced amount from what was set aside in 2026.
“And in the next tourism board meeting, the board is going to discuss … 2027 goals and criteria for events and future meetings,” she said.
Green explained that in the fall of last year, the board opted to get rid of all funding criteria for the event funding process.
“And I believe, from what I’ve heard, the majority now feel that that was the wrong move,” she said.
She indicated the board is looking to bring back event criteria, “which will help, perhaps, a level of scrutiny on the event applications that are being brought forward.”
Ranson asked who made the decision on “cutting the events,” to which Green responded, “I guess I did.”
She explained that she did that when drafting the budget, “and we discussed it during the tourism board meeting, and the rest of the board didn’t have any pushback on that.”
Ranson is the BoCC member that sits on the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board.
She further explained that she was “just trying to make all the numbers work,” and specifically make sure that there was $500,000 set aside for advertising, “so that you guys can clearly see what the county lodging tax was going to be used for.”
She added, “And since I’ve heard that you guys don’t want to support event funding out of county lodging tax,” Green said.
She explained other costs for fireworks and Comfest would’ve been given to third-party event organizers.
Commissioner Veronica Medina asked what the amount was for third-party event organizers in 2026, with Green indicating it was $150,000.
Green noted that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board’s annual budget for event planning was $40,000 to $60,000.
“Only since COVID has the number increased significantly,” she said, adding, “It gets us back to where we were in the past.”
Medina expressed that it is a “significant decrease” in event funding for 2027, adding that when previously discussing advertising and marketing funds, she suggested those funds could cover costs for fireworks “and other things.”
She added, “I think we could talk a little bit more about the budget and how that works.”
Medina also asked when the town council would be approving the budget, to which Green indicated it already has.
“They were on a very accelerated schedule this year,” Green said.
She also explained that if there is a significant amount in reserves, if the board wants to allocate more funding for events, “there is an opportunity to use money from reserves with, again, approval from the town and the county.”
Green later noted that the tourism board has about $1.4 million in reserves, but needs to retain approximately one-third of that for personnel expenses in the event that there is no revenue coming in.
“So, there’s roughly about $1 million that would be accessible,” she said.
Green also noted that most of the events that applied for funds have received funds for “years and years.”
Medina commented that the BoCC needs to figure out its expectation for tourism and where the funds could go, or need to go.
“My biggest concern with the whole conversation was to separate the money from tourism, and was about the funding for events in the community,” she said, adding that “for us to drop to $40,000 is very concerning.”
Medina then asked for confirmation that the funding amount was dropped because of the county’s request that $500,000 “strictly go to marketing and advertising,” which Green confirmed.
“Even though a lot of these activities … would be considered advertising or marketing,” Medina said.
“Honestly, I think everything we do is considered promoting the destination,” Green said.
Medina noted, “besides paying staff wages,” adding that could even be “disputed.”
Green’s presentation indicates that $500,000 is budgeted for marketing in 2027, and that the 2027 marketing plan will be presented at the tourism board’s meeting in December.
Current projected expenditures for the tourism board’s 2027 budget are listed at $1,558,889, according to Green’s presentation.
At the end of the presentation, Medina asked if there was still an opportunity for the BoCC to direct the tourism board to use “say $100,000 from the advertising and marketing” to go toward event funding.
“Absolutely,” Green commented.
Medina also noted that the tourism board is a volunteer board that provides recommendations.
“I was really disappointed when I found out that the [event] criteria was just erased,” she said, asking if Green could give direction to the board or bring similar matters to elected boards for consideration in the future. “Because I think if it’s something that major, that definitely affects the funding to the community. I think that deserves a bigger conversation.”
Green indicated that she “urged” the tourism board to not drop criteria for event funding.
“It also helps event organizers understand what they’re being graded on,” she added.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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