Question 1A failure forces city, county to make more budget cuts

Pueblo voters struck down a measure Tuesday that would have raised the countywide sales tax by half a cent.

Unofficial election results as of Tuesday night showed people voted against Question 1A by 57 percent.

Pueblo City Council and Pueblo County Commissioners hoped 1A would pass so they would no longer have to fund the six organizations that would have benefited from the tax. If 1A had passed, it would have saved the city $1.8 million and the county $2 million.

Pueblo City Manager Sam Azad said last week if 1A did not pass, one option would be to consider laying off about 30 city employees. City Council member Chris Kaufman said he wouldn’t support layoffs, adding that city employees are already doing the work of two to three people.

Question 1A was one of four proposed tax measures on the ballot. Kaufman said he believes all those measures hurt the outcome of 1A.

“When you ask about taxing this and taxing that, taxing this, taxing that, you really run into an issue where the whole list of answers is gonna be no. You guys all want too much of my money and it’s not gonna happen,” Kaufman said.

Kaufman said City Council will meet later this week to talk about the budget.