By David Grant Long

Early voting, which will continue through Friday, has been running about normal for an off-year election in Montezuma County, according to Deputy County Clerk Carol Tullis, who wants to remind those who choose to go to the polls next Tuesday that they will be voting according to school-district precincts, not county precincts.

Although the ballot is rather slim, voters will be deciding issues directly affecting the future of both Colorado and Montezuma County, along with local questions concerning various school and special districts. In fact, there are six different ballots for county voters, Tullis explained, depending on where they live.

Anyone who has an address change or other new information to report must go to the county clerk’s office and make the changes before Election Day, Tullis said.

The question that will have the most impact on local residents is the 0.45-cent county sales-tax proposal to fund construction and operation of a new jail, as well as to expand the community-corrections program and establish a detox center in the old jail space, programs that would also help keep the inmate population down.

The new $5.5-million, 110-bed jail would replace the poorly designed structure into which as many as 90 inmates are regularly crowded now, even though it was intended for only half that number. The tax would end when the $6.26-million bond was paid off, in 20 years at the most.

The county commission and the sheriff’s department have been campaigning vigorously for the tax, which would be levied on most retail goods other than food, medicine, utilities and farm equipment costing more than $1,000. (The exemptions are copied directly from those included in the state sales tax.)

In a recent interview, the commissioners pointed out that if the proposed sales tax is rejected, as a similar proposal was in the last election, they may have no choice other than contracting with a private, for-profit company to build a much larger jail that would import prisoners from other places to keep the beds full.

A federal mandate to build a new prison would probably soon be forthcoming if nothing is done, they explained, since the abysmal conditions at the current facility are very likely to spark litigation by prisoners.

The last attempt to pass a 0.50-cent sales tax was defeated by a margin of 344 votes.

Also on the ballot, the state is asking for voter approval to go $1.7 billion in debt to speed up a number of road projects across the state, with most of it to be spent on widening I-25 in the urban Denver area.

Repayment, which would total $2.3 billion, would be made from future federal gas-tax revenues returned to the state and would not mean an increase in taxes.

Proponents, led by Gov. Bill Owens, argue that the proposal will save money in the long run, since earlier completion of these projects will avoid years of inflated construction costs, and will make the roads safer for all users more quickly than if the work were delayed.

Critics maintain that the state has plenty of money for road projects already, and that the $600 million that will be lost in interest could be used for actual infrastructure improvements instead; they also argue that widening I-25 will only encourage more rampant growth in the Front Range and relieve the pressure for any real movement toward mass transit.

Furthermore, they question whether it is reasonable to assume that federal gas-tax revenues will not change in the future.

Owens and the General Assembly tried to implement the plan without voter approval last winter, but the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that this scheme would be an unconstitutional violation of the TABOR Amendment.

Other issues appearing on local ballots, depending on your place of residence, are as follows:

-- In Cortez School District Re-1, five seats are up for election, but only one is contested.

In District D, which includes the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, incumbent Susan Baacke is being challenged by Eric Whyte. Orly Lucero (District A), Steve Hinton (District C), Jaclyn Fisher (District E), and Renee Reed (District G) are running unopposed.

-- In the Dolores Fire Protection District, voters are being asked to approve a mill-levy increase from 2.995 to 8.590 mills to pay for improvements necessary to keep up with growth and the increasing demand on services, DFPD officials say. The increase would raise some $143,000 in the next 10 years to pay for two new substations, new equipment to replace some that is outdated, and the increasing costs of maintenance of existing equipment.

-- In Dolores School District Re-4A, five candidates are competing for three open seats on the school board. Two, Graham Nielson and Joe Reed, are incumbents seeking re-election. The remaining three are Holly Asher Brown, April Scott, and Brad McCracken.

One other name will appear on the ballot, that of Theresa Kathy Ragland, but she has withdrawn and is not a candidate.

-- In Mancos, the town is seeking a 1-cent sales tax to raise approximately $62,500 a year to pay for capital improvements and operation and maintenance of the town’s equipment and facilities.

-- The Mancos Library District has a proposal on the ballot asking to be "de-Bruced," or exempted from the limits on revenue growth imposed by the TABOR amendment. Under the proposal, the district would be allowed to keep any revenue it raises over its spending cap.

-- The Mancos library has another proposal that asks for an increase in the mill levy from 1.5 mills to 2, which would raise about $39,000 a year to upgrade the library.