Dear Manitou Springs Voters,
Nearly one year after voters rejected last year’s Triple Tax, City Council once again is asking a small group of Manitou businesses to rescue it from financial problems of its own making.
The rationale for this year’s amusement tax increase rests on a false and misleading premise. In the interests of fairness — tax proponents say — Manitou should nearly double its 5% amusement tax to 9.03%. Doing so — we are told — would make it equal to the City’s sales tax rate.
Yet Manitou Springs’ sales-tax rate is 3.9% — not 9.03%! The 9.03% figure combines taxes imposed by four separate governments: 2.9% for the State of Colorado, 1.23% for El Paso County, 1% for PPRTA and 3.9% for the City. The City’s own website confirms this.
That is not fairness. It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison that purposely misleads voters about the Manitou Springs’ sales tax rate.
It’s time Council stopped treating tax increases as substitutes for responsible financial management. How can voters have confidence in sending more unrestricted and unlimited revenue to a City that has not demonstrated that it can manage the revenue it already has?
Manitou already collects a higher local tax on amusement admissions than the 3.9% City sales tax imposed on retail purchases. Raising the amusement tax to 9.03% would make the City’s amusement tax equal to the entire combined sales tax imposed by the City, county, state and the PPRTA.
Rather than work with the business community on a solution that works for everyone in Manitou, City Council once again is unfairly burdening local businesses. Ballot issue 2A is The Unfair Tax!
Imposing a high tax rate on a single industry has failed before in Manitou Springs. When Colorado Springs voters legalized marijuana in 2024, Manitou’s marijuana tax revenue declined drastically. The City built its budget around revenue that City Council admitted numerous times would eventually go away once Colorado Springs legalized marijuana. Now it's asking attractions businesses to fill the gap.
When Manitou voters rejected last year’s amusement-tax increase, Council warned us that failure would require serious budget cuts. Those cuts never materialized through the transparent, line-by-line process this financial situation demands.
Manitou Springs residents and businesses deserve transparent budgeting, disciplined spending and genuine cooperation with attractions providers — not higher taxes on visitors. Vote NO on Ballot Issue 2A — the unfair amusement tax increase!
Please join us in Voting NO on 2A – the Unfair Tax increase!
Dolores Adams-Miller, Iron Springs Chateau
Lori Adams-Miller, Iron Springs Chateau
Gregory Cobble, Manitou E-Bikes
Rob Hefner, Cliff Dwelling Museum
Ted Johnston, Pikes Peak Cog Railway
Greg Wellens, Adventures Out West Ziplines
