Long-awaited funding for Colorado Springs’ outdoor recreation hubs could wait longer, following recommendations that advocates found troubling.

Polling came back unfavorable from voters who were asked if they’d support a tax increase to bolster the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks (TOPS) program, as The Gazette previously reported. A firm teamed with lobbying nonprofit Trust for Public Land cautioned against putting the question on the April ballot, as had been the hope of the Trails and Open Space Coalition, the city’s leading advocacy organization that paid for the polling.

“It was like a sock in the gut,” said Susan Davies, the coalition’s executive director.

That was especially the case considering Trust for Public Land’s recent track record, she said. The organization claimed “huge success” in 2020, with all 26 of the parks-related voter measures it supported around the country approved.

“So we figured, if the rest of the country gets it, we would get it,” Davies.

But the main concern from professionals, she said, was the tax-averse city’s unique 30-word restriction on such ballot questions. Voters polled responded differently to a tax increase with more context and “education,” Davies said — with more information on what the extra dollars would mean for fire mitigation, irrigation and trail and bathroom maintenance, for example.

“When the people understood what (the increase) could accomplish, there was definitely movement. There was above 50% support,” Davies said.

The sales tax-driven TOPS program collects a cent on every $10 spent. Since being authorized by voters in 1997, the program amounts to about $9.5 million annually and is responsible for such open spaces as Red Rock Canyon, Stratton and Blodgett Peak.

Most recently, TOPS purchased lands seen as keys to recreation in Waldo and Williams canyons and an anticipated bike park. But “it doesn’t generate enough money to develop property that the program has purchased,” noted Bob Falcone, the TOPS working committee’s chairperson, in a Colorado Springs Independent column last month. He added: “in some cases, maintenance of existing parks and trails is years and millions of dollars behind.”

A yet-to-be-published analysis has found $200 million in deferred capital maintenance for city parks, according to figures provided to The Gazette. The study identified annual shortfalls of $13 million for “sustainment requirements” to infrastructure. And about $25 million for ADA improvements is needed, according to the analysis.

Advocates have blamed degradation on general fund support for parks that still lags behind pre-recession levels.

But to the extent to which TOPS money should be used to shore up shortfalls, advocates are split. Some say the main purpose of TOPS — to acquire acreage — has been lost to upkeep over the years, with voter-approved changes to allocations in 2003 and 2013.

“There’s going to have to be some redefining,” said Lee Milner, who spearheaded the campaign for TOPS in the 1990s. “One thought would be if you increased the tax and were much more specific for maintenance, then hopefully it would take some of the burden off the original 0.1%.”

The TOPS working committee has suggested an increase to 0.25% (2.5 cents for every $10 spent). That projects to more than double the program’s current annual revenue, up to $25 million.

But before a potential question in November, Davies said the priority for April’s ballot would be to revise the 30-word restriction. City Council President Richard Skorman recently told The Gazette he saw reason to ask voters for the change.

Davies said the poll showed support for extending TOPS the way it is, beyond its 2025 expiration. “Yes, we have five years,” she said, “but we keep falling further and further behind.”