A penny of your El Paso County sales tax is the PPRTA roads tax

When you buy something in Colorado Springs, the sales tax you pay is really a stack of separate taxes. The state takes a share, El Paso County takes a share, the city takes a share, and one more layer sits on top: the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, or PPRTA. On a city receipt, that PPRTA piece works out to about a penny on the dollar.

PPRTA is its own thing. It is a regional transportation authority, a kind of district created under Colorado law that several governments join together. Voters in those places approved it, and only voters can set or raise its sales tax. The members include Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, El Paso County, and smaller towns like Green Mountain Falls, Calhan, and Ramah. So whether you owe the PPRTA penny depends on where the sale happens, not just that you live in the county.

The money is dedicated to transportation: building and widening roads, keeping existing roads paved and maintained, and supporting transit. That is the whole job of the authority.

Here is the part worth knowing as a resident. The capital, or new-construction, portion of the tax is not permanent. It runs on a roughly ten-year cycle and goes back to voters to renew. That renewal design is why you will see PPRTA road questions show up on the ballot every so often. It is normal, not a surprise.

If you want to see how your local rate is broken down, the City of Colorado Springs publishes the components. To understand how these regional authorities are set up and why they need voter approval, the Colorado General Assembly explains the framework.