YOUR AD HERE »

Dillon revenues declining

Lu Snyder

DILLON – After increasing for several years, sales tax revenues in Dillon have begun to decline.

The town’s sales tax revenues have increased each year since Dillon Ridge Marketplace was built in 1998, said Dillon Town Treasurer Carri McDonnell. But those numbers were down already 3.6 percent in the first six months of this year – that equates to a shortage of $61,000.

Sales tax is the primary source of revenue for Dillon, she said. It accounts for 75 to 80 percent of revenues in the town’s general fund, which pays for operations, maintenance, capital improvements and more.



McDonnell said she believes the decline is the result of the impacts on tourism resulting from economic downturn, fallout from Sept. 11, wildfires and drought.

McDonnell is not optimistic things will improve soon.



“I think it’ll continue to go down,” she said. “It’s going to depend on the tourism economy.”

In the meantime, town officials have cut back on expenses, she said. They’ve delayed some capital projects and postponed purchases of computers, vehicles and equipment for the town.

Town officials already have begun their budgeting for next year, though the new budget will not be adopted until December, McDonnell said. They are being conservative in their revenue projections.

“We’re being cautious now,” she said. “We’re watching it very closely to determine what’s going to happen.”

It’s too early to tell how much revenues will be for 2002 as a whole or what will happen next year.

“We’ll predict revenues at a certain level, which will then determine how much we need to reduce expenditures,” McDonnell said.

There has been no talk of layoffs or similar impacts for the town.

“It’s too early to make those decisions,” she said.

Lu Snyder can be reached at 970-668-3998, ext. 203 or lsnyder@summitdaily.com


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.