There are fundamental flaws in the lodger’s tax proposal.
The major flaw is that it will be a tax increase in perpetuity. This “forever” tax increase allocates 55% to bring substantially more tourists to Durango, irrespective of impacts on traffic, housing prices, city services, parking and crowding!
But will it be good for the community? Shouldn’t it have a 5- or 10-year year sunset clause, so future residents can better assess its outcome?
A second flaw is what it doesn’t say. It provides the City Council a pittance for public transportation and the arts but nothing for other core needs such as homeless issues, affordable housing, a new police station and infrastructure to support the anticipated tourist surge. (The 55% figure, by the way, is on top of $1 million in tourist marketing dollars already coming from the current lodgers tax.)
And there is no guarantee of how those 55% annual dollars will be spent. Lest you think the latter to be overstatement, does the reader realize that 40% of the road tax narrowly approved by the voters in April 2019 was diverted to salaries and the general fund?
That’s right, because of one sentence in the road ballot issue, 40% of what the voters expected would go for new streets and repairs was immediately (and still is) spent in other areas. Language is important!
The lodgers tax increase is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” It should be defeated and later presented in a form clearly benefiting core issues facing Durango residents.
John RitcheyDurango
