It was a “small” adjective for The Gazette but a giant lie to anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce.

“‘SMALL?'” Bruce asked in an email about a Thursday article mentioning the city’s proposed “small tax increase” of 0.62 percent.

“$50 million yearly for five years would be the LARGEST city tax increase in state history!” Bruce wrote.

Not quite.

Last year alone, Estes Park passed a 1 percent, 10-year sales tax increase to improve streets, trails, a recreation center and acquisitions for emergency; Aurora, a retail marijuana sales tax of 5 percent to 10 percent; Basalt, a 2 percent lodging tax and 5 percent retail pot tax; Black Hawk, a 5 percent tax on retail and medical marijuana; Bow Mar, a 10-mill property tax increase to fix roads and buy property; Cañon City, a 5 percent retail marijuana tax adjustable to 10 percent; DeBeque and Dillon, a 5 percent retail pot tax each; and Delta, a 0.75 percent sales tax increase for parks, trails and open space.

Those are only the tax hikes in 2014 for cities with names starting with “A” through “E.” Colorado Municipal League records dating back 20 years show plenty of other tax raises higher than the 0.62 percent sought by Colorado Springs.

But Bruce was accurate in noting that the increase would boost Colorado Springs’ ranking from 33rd to 17th highest in the 50 biggest U.S. cities for its combined municipal tax rate, said Richard Borean, spokesman for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tax Foundation research group in Washington, D.C.

Among states that charge sales taxes, Colorado has the lowest, at 2.9 percent, the foundation website says. But it has the highest average local sales tax rate, at 4.54 percent as of mid-2015.

If the ballot issue passes, the Colorado Springs sales tax of 7.63 percent, tapped by the city, state and county, would rise to 8.25 percent.

That compares with 9.25 percent in Commerce City, 8.845 percent in Boulder, 8.75 percent in Northglenn and, closer to home, 7.4 percent in Pueblo, 7.9 percent in Castle Rock and 7.65 percent in Denver.

One of Bruce’s websites, raisetaxesagain.com, leads with a dramatic headline in red ink and all capital letters: FLASH! MAYOR ADMITS SCAM!

It says Mayor John Suthers “admitted” to a reporter on Sept. 8 that only half the tax money would go to roads and the other half to “other improvements.”

The televised quote: “Suthers said about half of the construction costs will involve repaving, with sidewalks and related infrastructure comprising the other half.”

“When you build roads,” the mayor said Thursday, “about 50 percent of cost goes to asphalt, and 50 percent goes to concrete for curb and gutter. … Every single cent will go to construction of roads.”

The city also will continue to spend about $18.5 million a year from the general fund on road maintenance, including $16 million that by law must go to the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, he said.

The resolution that put the tax question on the Nov. 3 ballot calls for the city auditor to average how much the city has spent on roads over the past three years and continue to spend that, about $18.5 million.

“It cannot go to anything else,” Suthers said.

Some critics say the city should allow recreational pot sales to generate money for roads. That might raise $2 million to $5 million annually, but nowhere near the $50 million a year needed, the mayor said.

Suthers also took issue with most claims by the latest anti-tax Americans for Prosperity report at http://bit.ly/1UFujec.

“They’re now talking about the city taxing its enterprises, like a property tax for Pikes Peak, for the cemetery, which is a total reversal from Issue 300, where Bruce was trying to prevent the city from drawing any income off its enterprises,” Suthers said. “Now along comes AFP and says, ‘Charge the enterprises a property tax.'”

AFP says the city gave away $6.8 million in property tax to business improvement districts; the mayor said BID properties pay city property taxes plus a levy for designated improvements.

The report’s claim that the city lacks a “full grasp” of funding available for disasters prompted Suthers’ retort that the city has “a very firm grasp” on what’s available, “having experienced four disasters in the past three years.” But grants don’t cover all the costs, such as the $10 million needed to manage stormwater from the Waldo Canyon burn scar, he noted.

Good roads will save residents money, he said. They spend an average of $723 a year on tires, alignments, shocks and the like because Colorado Springs has the 24th worst urban roads in the nation, said a July report by transportation research group TRIP.

The sorry state of city streets also dissuades tourists and potential new businesses, he said.

More important: “There’s some serious public safety issues,” Suthers said, recalling the bicyclist who was severely injured this summer when she hit a pothole at the bottom of North Cheyenne Cañon.