Telluride Voters Weigh New Lift Ticket Tax to Fund ‘Free’ Gondola

By: Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado

SAN MIGUEL COUNTY—Voters in Telluride are deciding several tax and debt related measures on the November ballot, including a lift ticket excise tax to fund gondola transit, a debt package to subsidize housing, and a hotly debated citizen-initiated charter amendment mandating voter approval for big-ticket town projects.

Telluride is a ski town of around 2,600 year-round residents in San Miguel County, located in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.

A lofty lift ticket tax

If approved by voters, Ballot Issue 2A slaps a 5% excise tax on Telluride Ski & Golf Resort lift ticket purchases. The revenue will go to improvements, maintenance, and rebuilding of the town’s year-round public gondola system by pledging the revenue to the San Miguel Authority of Regional Transportation (SMART). The gondola connects Telluride with the Town of Mountain Village as well as the summit of the ski mountain, with no charge to riders.

In last year’s election, voters approved a funding extension, as well as plans to re-build the gondola in 2028. Currently, the Telluride Ski Resort gives SMART $1.5 million annually for gondola services, around 25% of the total operating costs for the service.

The tax–which the town council would be free to adjust without exceeding 5 percent–is intended to bring in an extra $2,500,000 in 2026. The ballot question also asks voters to “de-TABOR” the revenue, meaning the town can keep and spend any money collected over the estimate, that would otherwise be refunded back to taxpayers.

SMART is one of five regional transportation authorities (RTAs) in Colorado, and not the first attempt to tax skiers to pay for transit.  As previously reported by Complete Colorado, an effort to form an RTA in the Yampa Valley is also the November ballot.  In that case, the Steamboat Springs City Council threatened to refer a lift ticket tax to voters, then dropped the effort after the ski resort there agreed to subsidize the RTA, should it pass.

In addition to the lift ticket tax, Ballot Issue 2B racks up over $64 million in new debt to finance construction of “affordable” housing in Telluride, with the more than $132 million repayment price tag to be paid for out of the town’s existing sales and use, property, and short-term rental taxes.

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