Cedaredge Sales and Use Tax Increase

Ballot Issue 2C adds a 1% sales and use tax in the Town of Cedaredge starting January 1, 2027, with no end date. The town's rate rises from 2% to 3%. As an example, at 1%, $100 of taxable purchases in Cedaredge adds $1. For a purchase taxed at every level in Cedaredge, the state's January 2026 rate table (DR 1002) lists the state's 2.9%, Delta County's 2%, two countywide 0.80% taxes for public safety improvements and a health services district, and the town's 2%, a total of 8.5% today; with 2C's 1%, the total would be 9.5%. The town's use tax applies to vehicles bought elsewhere and registered in Cedaredge and to construction materials; the tax on materials is paid when the building permit is issued. The question states the increase as $500,000 in 2027, the first full fiscal year, and authorizes whatever the tax raises in each later year.

The question limits the money to four uses and sets a minimum share for each: at least 20% each for roads, streets and sidewalks, for public recreation such as trails, sport courts and parks, and for operating costs of municipal law and code enforcement, including a school resource officer; and at least 15% for economic development activities supporting businesses in town, including marketing, promotions and events. The board of trustees assigns the remaining 25% each year by resolution to any of the four. Town staff told the board that a use with a 20% minimum could receive up to 45% in a year, and economic development up to 40%. None of the money can go to the town-owned golf course.

On September 3, 2026, the trustees voted 5-2 to adopt Resolution 26-2026, which sends 2C to voters. Trustee Cordell Chapman's motion to raise the balance the board assigns each year to 40% failed by the same margin.

The question authorizes Cedaredge to collect, keep and spend all revenue from the tax as a voter-approved revenue change, exempt from the revenue and spending limits of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution.

Mayor Greg Hart said in a December 2025 interview that general government functions are no longer adequately funded, because costs have risen faster than the town's mostly tax-based revenue, and that the town had already cut its general fund. He said an independent commission recommended a 1% sales tax increase as the most viable route to fiscal security. Of the present 2% rate, 1.125% goes to the general fund, 0.375% to the capital improvement fund and 0.5% to Main Street debt payments, according to the town's April 2026 sales tax report.