KSJD's Austin Cope spoke with new Montezuma County Commission Chair James Lambert about issues facing the county this upcoming year. Click below to listen.
Correction 1/15/17, 2:00pm:
During this interview, Mr. Lambert stated that Montezuma County has the second highest sales tax in the state. When we pointed out that Montezuma County does not have a sales tax, Lambert clarified that he meant the City of Cortez.
Earlier today, when we aired a correction to Lambert's statement, we said that the City of Cortez had the fifth-highest sales tax ranking in the state. That was an error on our part, based on an incorrect reading of the state sales tax data. Since the calculations for sales tax rankings are complex, we are reaching out to the Colorado Department of Revenue to determine Cortez's actual ranking as of January 2018, and will publish a story with the rankings soon.
Also, we indicated that revenue from sales tax collected in Dolores and Mancos went directly to the state. However, the state of Colorado collects sales taxes on behalf of Mancos and Dolores, and the revenue goes back to the towns.
Here's what we do know: the combined sales tax rate in Montezuma county is 3.3 percent, most of which goes to the state of Colorado (2.9 percent), and a small fraction (0.4 percent) which goes to the hospital district (but only when registering or titling a motor vehicle).
Montezuma County's own sales tax rate is 0 percent. That places it in at least the bottom quarter of counties in Colorado, many of which have at least some form of sales tax.
