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Steamboat Springs — Facing budget shortfalls and in need of a reliable source of income, the Tread of Pioneers Museum will ask taxpayers for help this November.

On Thursday, the Museum Board unanimously decided to move forward with a mill levy in time for November's general election. It was the first time the board officially said it would ask taxpayers to help fund the museum. However, how much the levy would be and who will be taxed is still undecided.

"It is a multistep process and we never voted if we wanted to go for a mill levy," board member Andy Stofan said at Thursday night's meeting. "I think that is the first decision. Then the next phase is what do we want and what are our options."

Board President Jayne Hill said for the past few months the board has seen a mill levy as the best way to create a much-needed stabilized income for the museum. But the board wants to talk with other museums and preservation committees in Routt County before setting a mill levy amount and the boundaries for a special taxing district.

One of the options Routt County Commissioner Nancy Stahoviak discussed is a countywide mill levy dedicated to museum and preservation efforts. Stahoviak said a portion of the tax could go toward funding the museum's operating cost and the remainder could be used for grants for capital projects in the county's other museums and preservation boards.

Hill would like the museums in North Routt, Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa, as well as Historic Routt County and the city's Historic Preservation Committee, to be part of the discussion. The Tread of Pioneers Museum is the only museum in Routt County to operate on a year-round basis with full-time employees.

"It would be an ideal situation if we could get a preservation kind of tax," Hill said. "Every museum in the county has different needs. It would need to be something that suites everyone's needs."

A quarter of a mill would raise about $170,000 a year, Stahoviak said, and might be the amount to consider if the preservation entities pursue a countywide tax together.

The board would like to bring the different entities together for a meeting in the second week in March. From there, Hill said the museum would decide which direction it wants to go.

If the other entities are not interested in pursuing a joint mill levy, Hill said the Tread of Pioneers may consider forming a museum taxing district that would encompass an area similar to the city limits and surrounding the Steamboat Springs Rural Fire Protection District.

The museum looked into using the same boundaries as the Steamboat Springs School District, but the school district reaches into North Routt, which has its own museum.

Until about 10 years ago, the Tread of Pioneers was operated only in the summer and on a volunteer basis.

But the cost of a year-round operation, full-time staff and upkeep of three buildings more than a century old is more than fund-raising and entrance fees can cover.

"We need to have a predictable sustained source of funding every year," Hill said.

"Each year we wonder if it is going to go (under). It is really hard to do sound planning and future development."

Hill said unlike many other year-round museums, the Tread of Pioneers does not have an annual arrangement with the city or the county.

Hill does not know of any other museums in the state that is funded through a mill levy.

"It is going to be a battle to do a mill levy right now," Hill said.

But Hill said a mill levy is the museum's best option for a stable funding source.

She said little to no grants exist that support operating costs.

The museum has gone before both the city and the county to ask for funding. During the October budget retreat, the City Council agreed to give the museum $35,000, which reinstated the $15,000 it cut the year before.

And the Routt County commissioners told the museum they would be willing to cover the shortfall in operating costs for 2003 as long as the board looked for other ways, most notably a mill levy, to create a stable funding source.

"We feel if historic preservation is important to people living in Routt County, they will be able to put something on the ballot to give them money for what they are trying to do," Stahoviak said. "But the county doesn't have the money in its budget."

Stahoviak said the county has never contributed to the museum's operating costs, but it has paid the museum $1,000 for its members sitting on the historic preservation board and has given funding for capital projects.