The towns of Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa have all officially approved sending a question proposing formation of a Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority to their November ballots, with a three-year, $1-million-per-year Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. funding pledge supporting the RTA.

The decisions from the town councils of the outlying communities mean that all six Yampa Valley municipalities now have submitted the RTA formation ballot question for November, marking an end to months of uncertainty and signaling unified support for attempting to expand regional transit options across the valley. 

The respective Hayden and Yampa meetings on Sept. 3 and 4 also functioned as joint meetings between the Routt County commissioners and each town council. At both, Commissioner Sonja Macys gave an overview of the series of events leading up to current circumstances.

For over a year, Ski Corp. had verbally committed to RTA formation committee members that it would provide a $1 million annual contribution for 20 years to “stand up” the RTA, Macys explained. This pledge was a major pillar in public communications and early intergovernmental negotiations and was used to rally support among voters and local governments. 

In early August, however, just weeks before the Sept. 5 deadline to finalize ballot language and within days of executing an agreement with the city of Steamboat Springs to commit $2.75 million per year to Steamboat Springs Transit, Ski Corp. representatives pulled back on the 20-year commitment and instead offered $1 million for one year, with an aim to continue longer-term negotiations. 

While the other five municipalities signaled reluctant agreement to the one-year pledge given the impending deadline for ballot language, Routt County officials responded to the last-minute retreat firmly, requesting $1 million for three years from Ski Corp. as a compromise — a pledge Ski Corp. agreed to just one day after the Steamboat Springs City Council approved initial reading of an ordinance to potentially put a proposed lift-ticket tax on the November ballot. 

After the three-year, $1 million offer from Ski Corp., the Steamboat Springs City Council advanced the RTA formation question to ballot at their Sept. 2 meeting, but still deliberated putting a lift tax on the ballot — which, if passed by voters, would have terminated both the $2.75 annual contribution to SST and the three-year contribution for the RTA, leaving Steamboat on the hook for the latter. 

Following a lengthy and often tense discussion, the Steamboat Springs City Council voted 5-2 at the same Sept. 2 meeting to kill the proposed lift tax, both to avoid a “divisive election” and potential “collateral damage” to the RTA, with the caveat that the tax may be revisited as soon as next year depending on the progress of Ski Corp. negotiations regarding a longer-term financial commitment to the transportation authority.

Routt County Commissioners and the Craig City Council both voted unanimously on Aug. 26 to submit the RTA question to the ballot with the revised Ski Corp. pledge. The Oak Creek Board of Trustees followed suit at its Aug. 28 meeting. 

“We’re in a better position than we were initially when (Ski Corp.) took a slight turn a month ago,” said Macys at the Hayden meeting on Sept. 4, reminding council that Ski Corp. is not a voting member of the RTA.

“Sometimes Steamboat and (Ski Corp.) can have an outsized voice,” she added, “so all the municipalities working together was really beneficial.”

Macys explained at both meetings that the next step for the RTA — assuming the formation question passes for Steamboat and at least one other municipality, which is the minimum requirement for the RTA’s formation — would be to drill down and identify service needs “community by community.” Whether RTA service will be free or fare-based has not yet been determined.

With Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa all on board, voters in the six municipalities will decide on Nov. 4 whether to approve formation of the proposed RTA without committing to specific funding measures at this stage.