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Local board adopts conservative 0% sales-tax forecast, flags revenue shifts
Summary
Staff presented a conservative 0% sales-tax projection for the 2026 budget and flagged other shifts — a roughly $50,000 highway-user tax increase and steep declines in mineral and severance revenues — while trustees agreed to proceed cautiously and revisit numbers before final adoption.
Speaker 11 (Unidentified speaker) presented the staff revenue forecast and urged a conservative approach, saying the town assumed a 0% sales-tax increase for 2026 and that "for every 1% increase in sales tax revenue is about a $100,000." Trustees discussed regional differences — Pitkin County and Aspen showed stronger growth — but accepted the conservative forecast given a healthy fund balance.
Staff described other material revenue changes. Speaker 11 said the highway-user tax is projected to rise by about $50,000, while mineral-leasing receipts were down roughly 17% (about $26,000) and severance taxes were down sharply; staff attributed the severance decline to a large number of tax credits in recent years. "That's the major changes to all of the revenues," Speaker 11 said as trustees reviewed the revised one-page budget.
Trustees and staff agreed the forecast remains adjustable before final adoption. Speaker 2 asked whether trustees were comfortable holding the 0% assumption; the board noted October sales-tax receipts due before the December finalization meet and asked staff to present updated numbers then. The meeting concluded with staff and trustees agreeing to monitor out-year changes and return to the budget if revenues materially shift.
The board did not take a formal roll-call vote on the forecast at this session; staff said the December meeting would include the most recent receipts and could prompt adjustments.
