Gunnison County Road and Bridge Sales Tax

Gunnison County says its 1978 sales tax may pay only for capital projects, not ongoing road maintenance, where the greatest need exists. Question 1A adds a 0.50% countywide sales tax beginning January 1, 2027, with no end date. It pays for safety work on county roads and bridges; repair, maintenance and improvement of county roads, bridges and related transportation infrastructure; and planning, designing, building, rebuilding and improving transportation infrastructure.

The ballot estimates first-year revenue at $3,811,363 and allows any additional amount the tax raises in later years. None of it goes to the cities and towns, which receive half of what the 1978 tax collects inside their limits. Under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), the question lets the county collect and spend the tax and its investment income regardless of amount, as a voter-approved revenue change.

Resolution 2026-29, adopted 3-0 on August 18, requires the county to account for the new revenue apart from the 1978 tax. It lets the board, by separate resolution or otherwise, interpret and clarify how the tax is collected, distributed and used, so long as that does not directly conflict with existing law or the resolution's express language.

The first referral, Resolution 2026-27 of July 21, exempted food for home consumption, prescriptions, diapers, residential utilities and every other category exempt from state sales tax, with a first-year estimate of $3,388,719. The Colorado Department of Revenue, which collects the tax, then told county staff it could not collect, enforce or administer those exemptions. Resolution 2026-29 repealed Resolution 2026-27, and the ballot question has no exemption clause.

Before the August 18 vote, Commissioner Elizabeth Smith suggested a rate of 0.48%. Assistant County Manager for Public Works Martin Schmidt answered that the polling stated anything under 0.5% made no difference, and the board kept the half cent. The county's May question-and-answer sheet said the proposed tax would not include groceries or utilities.

The state's rate table, DR 1002 (January 2026 edition), lists the state's 2.9%, the county's 1% and the Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority's 1%, which applies countywide except in Marble, Ohio City, Pitkin and Somerset. With its 4% for the city of Gunnison, 4.5% for Crested Butte and 5% for Mt. Crested Butte, those rows total 8.9%, 9.4% and 9.9% on a fully taxable purchase; with 1A's 0.50%, the totals would be 9.4%, 9.9% and 10.4%.

The table marks food for home consumption and residential gas and electricity exempt from the state and authority taxes, but not from the county's 1%. Resolution 2026-29 directs that the new tax be interpreted the same as the current county tax. In unincorporated areas inside the authority, groceries and home energy now carry only the county's 1%; with 1A's 0.50%, the total on them would be 1.5%.