Steamboat Council backs off from last-minute Lift Tax push
- Dylan Anderson
- Sep 4
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 11
Council backed off the Lift Tax proposal in a 4-2 vote, an effort that was spurred when Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. balked at signing a 20-year funding pledge for regional transit.
Steamboat Springs City Council backed away from sending a Lift Tax proposal to city voters on Tuesday, ending a late revival of the tax question spurred when Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. balked at signing a 20-year funding commitment to regional transit last month.
After an extended discussion and several public comments largely backing Ski Corp., a short-handed Council voted 4-2 to kill the Lift Tax ballot language, a vote that came after a failed attempt to advance the proposal to the ballot.
Council President Gail Garey and Council members Amy Dickson, Joella West and Michael Buccino voted to end Lift Tax talks, with Council members Brian Swintek and Dakotah McGinlay voting against. Council member Steve Muntean was absent from the meeting.
“[I] appreciate everyone’s attention to this and reaching out to all the various community members,” Garey said after the vote. “Looking forward, Ski Corp., to working together to best serve our community.”
Council’s decision means Steamboat Voters won’t weigh in on a Lift Tax this year, avoiding what some argued could end up being a contentious election. Still, Council members did not swear off a lift tax entirely, noting that it could return in a future year if Ski Corp. fails to come to an agreement for long-term funding for a Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority.
The vote appeared to hinge on Garey and Dickson specifically, who each said they were struggling with the decision.
“I’m struggling a lot with this,” Garey said. “I’ve talked to a lot of different people who definitely are angry about what has happened. I’ve also had numerous conversations with people who are also concerned about moving forward with a Lift Tax now.”
“We are only talking about this because Ski Corp. removed the $1 million [a year], 20-year contribution,” Dickson said. “I’m really torn about where I sit with this right now.”
Buccino urged his fellow council members to back away from a potentially contentious vote and work to maintain a partnership with Ski Corp., specifically pointing to public comment from the executive director of the Vail Valley Partnership.
“Once it becomes adversarial, it becomes very, very difficult,” said Chris Romer, head of the partnership, which acts as the chamber of commerce for Eagle County.
While noting Ski Corp. “shook the hornet’s nest” when they backed away from the 20-year funding commitment, Buccino said it wasn’t a reason to “change this culture for the future.”
“When you hear someone from Vail that comes in and says, don’t do it, it was a mistake,” Buccino said, tying the public commenter’s statement to Vail’s Lift tax, which has been in place for more than 30 years.
Swintek pushed back on Buccino, arguing Council should stand up for the citizens who feel the impacts of the resort.
“You may be here to serve Ski Corp., I am not,” Swintek said, before pushing his fellow council members to support a Lift Tax. Swintek, who went on an extended criticism of Ski Corp. last week, argued that the ski company’s words don’t align with their actions.
“Judging by the actions only, it is clear that it is just business,” Swintek said, adding that talk of the community changing due to a Lift Tax seemed like a “veiled threat” from Ski Corp. “I would love to see a partnership. I have been gravely disappointed. There’s talk of partnership, but the action doesn’t follow.”
In her comments, McGinlay said the original goal of talks with Ski Corp. to avoid a lift tax was to reach a deal that increased transit, something the current agreement with Ski Corp. does not provide.
“From my perspective, that was to help people reach their final destination for when we pass this RTA and there is more people riding our local buses,” McGinlay said. “We have to think about the bigger picture and what our goal was walking into this whole tax question. … I think we should have the community have a say in this.”
Council members briefly discussed the idea of tabling the Lift Tax to next year, though City Attorney Dan Foote said they needed to take an up or down vote on the second reading.
Swintek then motioned to send the question to the ballot, which was seconded by McGinlay, but failed on a 2-4 vote. Council then voted to end Lift Tax talks 4-2.
Partnership?
Tuesday’s decision ends a month’s worth of developments that started on Aug. 5 when Council approved a deal with Ski Corp. meant to avoid a Lift Tax. That deal, which sends $2.75 million a year from Ski Corp. to Steamboat Springs Transit, was negotiated over several months and discussed by Council members in various executive sessions.
The next day however, Ski Corp. informed officials that they couldn’t sign a separate agreement devoting $1 million a year for 20 years to an RTA, a deal that would have made official a commitment long stated by Ski Corp. Instead, the ski company offered $1 million for an RTA for next year.
The Routt County Commissioners found that unacceptable, instead asking for a three-year, $1 million per year funding commitment with a promise to negotiate in good faith with a future RTA board for a longer funding pledge. Council revived Lift Tax talks on Aug. 19 and Ski Corp. agreed to a three-year pledge the next day.
In a special meeting last week, Council members aired their frustration with Ski Corp. while giving a “thumbs up” to the three-year pledge.
“As the leader of Steamboat Ski Area, I want to acknowledge and take full responsibility for the strain that recent conversations and negotiations have created,” said Dave Hunter, President and COO of Ski Corp, on Tuesday.
In his public comments, Hunter spoke of the impact that Ski Corp.’s “in-kind giving” has for community nonprofits, how they have stepped up to support the community such as 2020’s drive-thru COVID graduation for Steamboat high schoolers and the food drives they have supported locally in recent years.
“It’s easy to target our resort, but it’s important to remember that we’re a major part of this community and we are stronger together,” Hunter said. “Moving forward with a Lift Tax is not partnership.”
Some of the frustrations aired at Ski Corp. last week continued into Tuesday’s meeting, with some on Council saying they don’t feel there is a partnership between the city and the resort.
Dickson said if it was a partnership, Ski Corp. would share data like skier days so the city could better plan ahead or they would have consulted the city about needs before the resort’s recent expansion.
“I’m not saying that Alterra is Vail Resorts, but we’re going down that road,” Dickson said, referencing Ski Corp.’s owner, Alterra Mountain Company. “I just want to call it what it is, I like all of you, but it’s not a partnership right now. … I want a true partnership, but right now we don’t have it.”
The deals signed with Ski Corp. last month
Whether it is a partnership or not, the city still has an agreement with Ski Corp. that will pay the city $2.75 million a year for 20 years, with inflation adjustments starting in the fourth year of the deal. This funding would be designated for Steamboat Springs Transit.
The deal consolidates other agreements and represents roughly $2.25 million in new money for the city. While increasing bus service was a goal at the onset of negotiations, this deal won’t allow for service expansion.
“The same amount of service that you saw at the GTC last winter is what we would have with the agreement we’ve already signed,” said John Snyder, the city’s public works director. “We get a lot of requests for additional night service that we can’t provide. Additional summer service that we can’t provide.”
West, who was one of Council’s two negotiators with Ski Corp. on the deal, said the agreement doesn’t “give us what we set out to achieve.”
“It was the best that we could do, there is no question about that,” West said. “What we walked out of the room with was enough money to maybe maintain the service level as it is. That’s what we got. Am I overjoyed with any of that? Absolutely not. … We made this agreement. My feeling is that our obligation is to stand behind that agreement.”
The RTA funding agreement will proceed as initially planned as well. That deal has Ski Corp. pay a future RTA $1 million a year for three years while negotiating in “good faith” to complete a longer funding deal that would extend until 2046. If completed, that would match the 20-year pledge Ski Corp. backed away from.
Also Tuesday, Steamboat Council referred a question to the ballot that, if approved, would form an RTA, a question Craig, Hayden, Oak Creek, Yampa and Routt County are referring to voters as well. If Steamboat Springs and one other jurisdiction approve RTA formation in November, it would be able to form.
If formed, that RTA Board made up of one elected official from each member jurisdiction would then negotiate for a longer funding agreement with Ski Corp. Those talks have a deadline of April 1, 2027, though nothing happens if that deadline passes. Council members indicated that they could shift to a lift tax in future years if those talks were to fall flat.
“I think that the wise way to behave at this point is to play this out,” West said. “We know where that [Lift Tax] ballot language is… we can always go back to it.”
