Here's a toast to the Vail Town Council and a tip of the cap to the upvalley ambulance district's board. Both gave a little something back to the taxpayers recently. The boards recognized that keeping their full windfalls from property taxes increasing by an average of more than 50 percent since 2007 in the county is a bit much under the circumstances.

The Eagle County Ambulance District will take $680,000 less in property tax revenue next year.

The town of Vail, at Councilman Andy Daly's suggestion to drop the town's property tax rate by 5 percent, knocked a smaller portion off, which comes to $11 per million dollars of a home in the town and about three times that for commercial properties.

Councilwoman Margaret Rogers had a point comparing that $11 to one glass of wine in a Vail restaurant.

Hence, the toast.

The council's discussion Tuesday about the merits of giving some tax back to the constituents illuminated core philosophical differences between Democrats and the fiscal restraint once associated with Republicans.

Rogers had an entirely valid and logical argument when she pointed out that the town could do so much more with the $150,000 it would have collected than each taxpayer given back their $11 per $1 million worth of property.

Just think what good the government could do with twice the current tax or three times.

You don't have to agree with the conclusion to see the mindset, along with the truth of the concept, if you are running a government.

Still, it's amazing how a 50 percent windfall in property tax collections swiftly became essential — during the boom, mind you — to local governments.

It's also valid and logical to hold annual spending gains to, say, 6 percent to 9 percent and live more within one's means. That would still be twice the normal wage increases during the growth years for workers, after all. And the specter of property valuations dropping 20 percent to 25 percent in the next assessment period would not loom quite so large.

Had local governments managed to constrain themselves to modest spending increases from their recent windfalls and given the remainder back to the taxpayers who pay those bills, well, let's just say the savings would amount to more than that glass of wine.

Another point overlooked in the council discussion showed what's at times painfully obvious in Eagle County. Local governments tend to think and act provincially rather than as part of a greater whole.

For instance, if all of the 80-some-odd property-taxing governments gave back $11 per $1 million worth of property value — even now! — pretty soon that would add up to some real money, depending on how many entities a particular property owner pays. And remember that commercial property is taxed at about three times the residential rate these days.

In the Vail Town Council's case, no one took an indefensible or out-of-line position. Rogers and others who shared her position were entirely correct. And so was Daly, even if his proposal that would deliver, say, a refill with that glass of wine was modest indeed.

And there's a property taxpayer or two, seeing their bill still soaring in a recession and weighing all the good things government has done with the extra money, who would gladly choose that glass of wine over even more “good.”

So cheers to the council for that much. Any more rounds after the ambulance district and town of Vail's gestures?

Vail Daily Editorial Board