Combine reckless budgeting with a desperate, last-ditch attempt at a bailout that gouges small business. And hatch the scheme in the dark, away from the public’s prying eyes. 

The upshot? The Manitou Springs City Council’s galling endorsement this week of its proposal asking voters to nearly triple an already hefty ticket tax on the town’s legacy attractions. It would be the highest such amusement tax in the state.

Issue 2A on the Nov. 4 ballot would cripple the historic, much-loved mom ’n’ pop draws for visitors that have helped define the town at the foot of Pikes Peak and have made it a tourism destination for generations. Apparently, that’s the thanks they get from City Hall.

We urge Manitou voters to see this tax grab for what it is — a fiscal assault on Manitou’s image and heritage that’s sure to backfire on the whole community — and vote “NO” when their mail ballots arrive as early as Saturday.

Issue 2A would let the council hike the city’s 5% tax on tickets to 14% for the town’s signature attractions, including the Iron Springs Chateau, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and the Cliff Dwellings Museums. Adventures Out West Ziplines, Manitou E-Bike Company and the Manitou Comedy Festival would get slammed by the tax hike, too.

The sticker shock would stun visitors.

“If our price goes up, we’re automatically going to lose a percentage of our business,” Manitou E-Bike owner Greg Cobble told The Gazette’s news staff. Cobble said the roughly $17 in excise taxes a family of four currently must pay for e-bike rentals would soar to $50. 

The Pikes Peak Region Attractions Association’s board has passed a resolution opposing the tax hike. 

“I think it’s going to turn some people away,” said association executive director PK McPherson. 

Tuesday’s 5-1 council vote left the attractions’ owners justifiably furious they had been shut out of the process with no practical chance for input.

“It’s frustrating for every single one of us,” said Iron Springs Chateau dinner theater owner Lori Miller.

As The Gazette reported this week, Manitou shops that wouldn’t have to collect the tax also fear its ripple effects. Antique shop owner Tim David said he was concerned that the tax could reduce tourist traffic in his store, noting, “It’s been very, very rough this season.”

Even Manitou council members who voted to place the measure on the ballot seem to acknowledge its likely impact on the city’s small-business attractions. But the council is claiming it must address a $4 million budget shortfall due to falling marijuana sales tax revenue.

Which makes the proposed tax hike even more irresponsible. The council only has itself to blame for its knee-jerk response to plummeting revenue. 

Notoriously unreliable tax proceeds from Colorado’s pot shops has been in decline statewide for a couple of years. Manitou’s council should have seen the writing on the wall when neighboring Colorado Springs voted to allow retail sales of recreational marijuana.  

In other words, it’s another example of a city government that ignored warning signs and failed to buckle down on its budget. Why didn’t Manitou City Hall adjust to changing conditions by cutting expenses — the way any household has to in a financial pinch?

Instead, it aims to balance its overspent budget on the backs of its small-business owners — whose venerable visitor attractions in some cases already operate on a shoestring, yet help drive the local tourism economy.

2A’s tax hike never should have been considered an option. If council members hadn’t shut out the public in the first place, they might have learned as much — and saved voters the trouble.