When I was in Mountain Village last year someone told me that the entire gondola is funded by a 1 or 1.5% tax on all property transactions in town. During covid when the market exploded they now are running a surplus of millions and millions of dollars. They even have their own car service in Mountain Village... just call a number and they'll pick you up and bring you to a lift of gondola free of charge.
As much money they have around Stowe it's absolutely next level in Telluride and it's all very compact which works well for a gondola as mass transit.
On another note I was in Medellin, Colombia this summer on vacation and they have an incredibly cool mass transit system that includes an awesome subway system that links up to a fairly complex gondola system to take you from the subway to the neighborhoods on hilltops. I actually spent an entire afternoon bar hopping via gondola and subway connection because I'm a dork.