A Wednesday meeting in Hayden with officials representing Yampa Valley municipalities and Routt and Moffat counties saw a general show of support for creation of a regional transportation authority.

But some disagreement arose over when, or if, jurisdictions might move forward with putting the question of membership and funding to their voters.

Local governments seeking to form a regional transportation entity must put the decision to voters for approval with a ballot question — either a general or special election. Voters would also have to approve a proposed funding mechanism to support the authority’s development and operations.

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Before ballot questions are put to voters, however, governments interested in participating in the transportation authority must sign an intergovernmental agreement to include a commitment to funding public outreach efforts meant to inform the election measures.

Moffat and Routt County commissioners joined elected leaders from Steamboat Springs, Craig and the towns of Yampa, Oak Creek and Hayden at the Wednesday meeting to discuss how to move forward with an agreement that would put regional transportation ballot questions to voters in November.

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“I think the benefit on the busing is probably undeniable with our population that is leaving Craig and working in Steamboat and the congestion there,” said Moffat County Commissioner Melody Villard. “But I think I need a bit more information on how it would impact the county and how we would be participating in it before I could say we are on board or not.”

Colorado law allows transportation authority member jurisdictions to set varying tax rates of up to 1% to fund the entity, but a property tax would need to be uniform across the authority’s boundary areas. The officials agreed that a sales tax, rather than a property tax, would be a more realistic option to fund the regional transportation authority.

Still, along with questioning the November election goal, some of the officials wondered if passing even a nominal sales tax would be feasible without properly engaging the public first.

“They have tried this before in the area and it just didn’t seem to work, but if we improved options then it would definitely help getting (residents) to work or activities in Steamboat from Yampa,” said Yampa mayor Stacey Geilert.

After the meeting, she added that “it is a great idea for the Steamboat area but does not seem like a feasible solution right now for Yampa without further discussions and more information on what commitment Yampa would need to make.”

Craig City Council member Randy Looper said the regional transportation authority’s potential to provide local bus service to the city and improved links to Steamboat and the airport would be a major attraction to the community he represents.

But he noted that passing a tax to fund the operations would be a tough sell for the city’s residents, especially if it needed to be done for the November election.

“Things that have happened in Craig, where it’s been politically led, don’t go through, they don’t pass,” he said.

Looper noted an exception: A 2009 tax question to fund a local school district was successful, but only after a hired firm spent two years working in the county to engage the community.

“In a six-month window, it is possible, but I don’t see it happening,” he added of the prospects in Craig for a regional transportation ballot measure to be approved in November.

Melissa Dobins, a member of Oak Creek’s town board, said prior attempts to provide transportation links between the town and Steamboat left residents frustrated with a lack of consistency in the limited service.

“The funding, that is the challenging part because I want to say, ‘hey, please run the buses every 45 minutes,’ but then how can you go about paying for that?” Dobbins said. “If we are going to do this, I really just hope we are able to do it in a functional way that is actually going to service our communities, because we do have quite a bit of a population that do not have vehicles and would love to be able to have access to be able to go into (Steamboat).”

Steamboat City Council member Michael Buccino led the local government discussion Wednesday, which came weeks after a study produced by the consulting firm Fehr and Peers laid out proposed boundaries, cost estimates and potential funding mechanisms to support the regional entity.

Buccino said he was “extremely pleased” with the participation from his colleagues representing neighboring municipal governments.

“More than that, it is just that we are all engaging and what I wanted to do with the meeting is to make sure that we engaged everyone,” Buccino said. “I wanted to them to know they are part of this solution, even if they don’t want to be part of it right at the beginning.”

At least two government entities are needed to create a regional transportation authority in Colorado. Once it is created, the authority can then accept new members and may offer services to jurisdictions not within the authority’s boundary.

Buccino said Thursday he felt confident that at least Steamboat, Hayden and Routt County would be ready to move forward with an intergovernmental agreement in November, but he understood why it might be beneficial to wait until at least 2025 to put a ballot measure to voters.

 “If you are just going to do it right now, Routt County, Hayden and Steamboat would sign an (intergovernmental agreement),” he said. “I think we could do it, but I don’t know if we want to do it.”

Buccino said the idea to propose a November ballot measure came from Routt County Commissioner Sonja Macys.

“She was saying that because it was such an amazing presidential year, people are going to get out to vote, and it has county commissioners in this one — the off-year election next year doesn’t have much at all,” Buccino said.

Macys said Thursday she was “pleasantly surprised” with the amount of enthusiasm expressed by local officials at the meeting and understood why some jurisdictions felt they needed more information and time to decide on moving forward with participating in the regional transportation authority.

Macys said she favored a “phased” path forward, where a regional transportation authority is approved by county residents and Steamboat and/or Hayden in November, and other jurisdictions could choose to pursue their own ballot question to join the entity in 2025 or later.

She noted the initial transportation authority could offer service to non-member entities before they choose to join.

“That is an approach that makes sense, because we are still all together in it, but I feel like there were people in the room last night who thought if we don’t all go together to the ballot at the same time, then we are separating or not unified any longer,” Macys said. “I don’t think that is true. I think some sort of phasing needs to happen.”