To the editor:
Thanks to the 50-year agreement enacted between our fair village and the Cog last year, we returned to the Cog Railway more than $500,000 in taxes they had collected from their passengers.
Although we won’t know precisely what their 2021 revenues are until they file with the Public Utilities Commission, best estimates are upwards of $17 million — and this in a year of reduced operations due to the COVID19 pandemic and their inevitable growing pains.
This year, with a full complement of trains in operation, they could double their revenues.
Yet, after these rebates of taxes already collected, the Cog is paying less than a 3 percent effective tax rate while all other businesses in Manitou pay up to 11 percenet. Is that fair?
The Broadmoor and the Cog are part of a $10 billion portfolio controlled by the Denver-based operation that financed rebuilding the Cog Railway. That $500,000 represents a paltry 0.02 percent of that fortune and that fortune likely fluctuates up or down by 100 times that amount on a daily basis. It represents a lot though to our community — a community in need of new schools and other facilities.
I would hope that our City Council can correct this injustice.
Steve Bremner
