From The Aspen Times (Jill Beathard):
Snowmass water customers will decide in May whether to fund an upgrade of their wastewater treatment plant through a mill levy.
The project, which the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District estimates it needs $19.85 million to complete, must be finished by spring 2020 to comply with new standards for water quality set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The water board decided at its meeting Tuesday to ask voters to approve a bond issue for the debt of the project, which it believes will be less of a burden on its customers than a rate increase.
To bring in the almost $20 million needed without the bond issue, the district would have to hike sewer service fees by about 80 percent, said District Manager Kit Hamby. The exact ballot language that will go before voters in May is being recalculated, but as of now, the district estimates that its tax collections would need to increase to $1.68 million annually.
“As a mill levy, voters can write that off on their taxes, but if we increase service fees, they can’t,” Hamby said. “We’d have to look at a different mechanism to fund this … if we don’t get this approved.”