Coming off of 2020 better than expected, the city of Aspen is on solid financial footing and will add five full-time positions to its roster of about 320 employees.
The new staff will be added across the city manager’s office, community development, police and parks and open space beginning on July 1.
The positions are necessary to meet growing demands of the community, according to Alissa Farrell, the city’s administrative services director.
“These are critical positions to the organization,” she said.
In total, the new positions amount to just over $500,000 annually in additional budget expenditures.
Other budgetary requests that Aspen City Council approved in an ordinance on first reading this week includes pay raises for existing staff.
Marijuana is displayed in glass canisters in glass cases around High Q in the Snowmass Village Mall. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
The three-county region of Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin encompasses 5,621 square miles, has a combined population of 133,000 residents, and is home to dozens of marijuana shops.
Those stores also combined for more than $66 million of Colorado’s record-breaking $2.2 billion in retail sales of marijuana in 2020, according to Colorado Department Revenue data.
Consumers of retail marijuana in Colorado are hit with a trio of taxes at the point of sale there’s a 2.9% state sales tax, a 15% marijuana retail sales tax (not applicable to medical pot), and a 15% excise tax. Some municipalities such as Snowmass Village, but not Aspen have additional taxes on cannabis. Snowmass voters passed a 5% sales tax on marijuana in November 2018.