During Tuesday’s Colorado Springs City Council meeting, Councilor Dave Donelson took issue with the recommended budget from the Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax (LART) Citizen Advisory Committee.
The LART tax is applied to hotel and rental car purchases in Colorado Springs. The bulk of LART funds — 75% of the approximately $10.7 million collected annually — go to city contractors Visit COS, the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC, COPPR, and Sports Corp. The remaining 25% of LART funds are distributed to local events that promote tourism and stimulate Colorado Springs’ economy. Organizers submit applications, which are reviewed by the LART Citizen Advisory Committee and evaluated using a rubric which weighs a variety of factors when making recommendations for the allocation of funds. This year the LART Citizen Advisory Committee received over 87 applications for the $2.2 million in available LART funds.
Donelson singled out the Pikes Peak Pride Festival in the LART Citizen Advisory Committee’s recommendations. “I am not going to support $60,000 for the Pikes Peak Pride Festival and parade in this LART appropriation when we have zero dollars for the Festival of Lights Parade or the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo,” said Donelson following a brief presentation from Colorado Springs CFO Charae McDaniel and LART Citizen Advisory Committee Sally Hybl.
“The charge of this tax is to attract visitors and enhance the economy of this city,” said Hybl. “It does not say anything about reflecting values, reflecting historic events.”
Donelson initially claimed his opposition to funding Pride was based on a consideration of economic impact. “I think we’re giving larger amounts to events — this one in particular, Pikes Peak Pride Festival — with a small economic impact,” he said. “That’s totally separate from ‘Is this an event that reflects the community’s values?’ Which I don’t think it is.”
During public comment, however, a number of speakers accused the Pride Festival of “sexualizing children,” distributing drug paraphernalia, and promoting “transgenderism.” Speakers incorrectly claimed that children “as young as 12” were receiving gender-affirming surgeries they described as “mutilation.”
City Council President Randy Helms noted that the city council liaisons to the LART Citizen Advisory Committee — Nancy Henjum and Lynette Crow-Iverson — had been “maligned” by emails opposing Pride funding. Helms said the focus of the conversation should be on the allocation of funds.
“Those are the discussions we should have, not the ones that incite people to send us terrible emails and texts and try to pit us against one another,” said Helms.
“I’m probably one of the letters that made you cringe because I sent you the pictures of the top and bottom surgeries and a lot of other things,” said conservative activist Jeannie Rush, who also goes by the moniker “Gammy Sparkles” online. “We’re not anti-gay. I’m kind of tired of this Hispanic Chamber, the Black Chamber, the white chamber and all of the sudden this culture of DEI, CRT, SEL, make the white people apologize. This is stupid.”
Other speakers, like Cory Arcarese, co-organizer of Las Fiestas Patrias, a Hispanic heritage event, had their own concerns about LART funding. “I don’t find myself on the same side of the table as Councilman Donelson very often, but this time I do,” she said. “Why is 75% going to organizations under contracts that technically should be city departments? They should be coming out of general fund. Why are there heritage and resolution events that don’t include minority events?”
Dana Duggan, an activist with Westside Watch and Integrity Matters, suggested criteria for LART funding. “Perhaps the solution here might be to try to set standards for these events so they are PG and family friendly and also inclusive,” she said. “When I say that, I mean that includes not hating on white people.”
Following public comment, Donelson discussed his distaste for transgender people. “A big problem for me, as someone else pointed out, is the ‘T’ [in LGBTQ],” he said. “Transgenderism. Is that something we want to spend tax dollars on? Spend tax dollars on promoting. Think about what that really means. Men in women’s sports. Transgenderism. Men in women’s spaces, like locker rooms, bathrooms. Children being put on puberty blockers and children and teenagers having surgeries to remove their breasts and have irreversible things done and have their fertility irreversibly changed.”
This isn’t the first time Donelson has used his position on city council to oppose LGBTQ issues. In 2022, Donelson opposed a transgender inclusion policy from the city’s Human Relations Commission, and then pushed to dissolve the commission. Donelson attempted — unsuccessfully — to amend the LART Citizen Advisory Committee’s recommendations, moving funds from the Pride Festival to the Festival of Lights and the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo.
“I think the promotion of transgenderism is harmful to our children, and our teens, and even our adults,” said Donelson.
Colorado Springs voted 5-2 to approve LART Citizen Advisory Committee’s recommended budget, with Donelson and Crow-Iverson voting in opposition.
[10/15: The headline has been updated.–ed]
