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Earlier this month, voters in the town of Mountain Village, Colorado, overwhelmingly approved a 5% tax on lift tickets sold at Telluride Ski Resort to help pay for a replacement for the gondola that connects the town of Mountain Village to the town of Telluride, Colorado. A similar ballot measure failed in neighboring Telluride by less than 20 votes. The free gondola that connects the two mountain towns, first installed in 1996, is nearing the end of its designed lifespan.
The San Miguel Authority for Regional Transit, or SMART, has been exploring ways of funding the gondola replacement, along with the Town of Telluride, the Town of Mountain Village, and Telluride Ski and Golf. The Denver Post has reported that SMART had an agreement with Telluride’s owner, Chuck Horning, for the resort to contribute $1.5 million per year to help cover operational costs, but that Horning pulled his offer shortly before an agreement could be signed. The tax will not apply to season pass products, shielding locals from the extra costs, and is estimated to raise $2.5 million per year. According to SMART, the annual operating costs are close to $5.6 million.
Northwest of Telluride, the Utah Department of Transportation has been pursuing a project to construct a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon, connecting Salt Lake City residents with Alta, Snowbird, and other recreation destinations in the canyon. From the start, the project has received intense opposition, with an overwhelming majority of public comments on the final environmental review classified as negative, and several lawsuits filed against the decision approving the gondola. One source of opposition to the project has been that Alta and Snowbird have not agreed to financially support construction or operation of the gondola in any way, leaving all funding to the taxpayers.
- Related: Regional Transit Plan Could Transform Ski Access to Steamboat, CO, But Funding Questions Loom
Could a lift ticket tax help solve the funding problem for the Little Cottonwood Canyon Gondola Project? In Telluride’s case, revenue from the newly created lift ticket tax will only cover a fraction of the operating costs. Replacement of the Telluride gondola, or constructing the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola, would be much, much more. Over in Steamboat, Colorado, a lift ticket tax was discussed to help fund a regional transit system after the resort pulled out of a proposed 20-year commitment to support the transit system at $1 million per year. Steamboat City Council voted against a ballot measure for a lift ticket tax in September 2025, in part because the resort then offered to support the transit system for three years at $1 million per year, but with the option of walking away if a lift ticket tax was passed. Though Steamboat does not have a lift ticket tax in place, it showed that lift ticket taxes can help spark negotiations between local governments and ski areas over support for public projects.
