Pothole tax hike starts Friday

The new year means new rules and a new tax you’ll be paying every time you shop in Colorado Springs.

Voters approved measure 2C in November, and Friday it goes into effect.

But not everyone’s confident the city’s pothole promise will be fulfilled.

“They’ve just gone downhill and there’s no relief in sight,” said Colorado Springs resident Doug Evans.

He says a lot of cars pass near his house on Quivera and Verde in Colorado Springs. While he’s seen plenty of crews over the years, they keep filling and refilling the same potholes repeatedly.

“They did some work, but a majority of the streets in town are shot,” he said. “Down on the south and southeast side, they are really rough.”

The city’s test of whether a tax will fix this problem permanently- begins soon.

“It was something that needed to happen. No one should be surprised. It needed to happen quickly,” said Mayor John Suthers.

The passage of 2C, a road tax in Colorado Springs, was one of his biggest election victories. For every $10 you spend in the city, you’ll now pay an extra 6 cents in tax for infrastructure.

Skeptics during the fall campaign said the money wouldn’t go to roads, but Suthers refuted that, citing specific ballot language that would directly send the revenue to repair work.

“It’s the job of the city auditor on an annual basis to make sure every cent that’s collected for those segregated taxes goes into those funds and is spent for what they’re intended for,” he said.

Evans doesn’t agree. that it will help.

“In the next few months, we’re going to have that same hole again,” Evans said.

But he, along with everyone else in Colorado Springs, will pay more as the new year rings in.

The tax is exempt for purchases on groceries, gasoline and prescription drugs.