EDITORIAL: Blunt Tools, Part Four

Read Part One

The Pagosa Springs Town Council will meet in a special session today at 5pm, to discuss the support systems that have come together locally and regionally during the COVID-19 shutdown. The agenda packet includes an upbeat report from the Lodgers Association, “Pagosa Springs Fast-Track to Recovery”, that begins:

It’s very important for all of us to recognize that Pagosa Springs is uniquely positioned to thrive or suffer based on how we respond to the Stay-At-Home order issued on March 25th by Governor Polis. Archuleta County has one of the oldest populations in the state, and relatively small healthcare infrastructure, making it uniquely susceptible to the risk of COVID-19. Pagosa Springs also has unmatched outdoor spaces, makes the largest portion of its tax revenue during the summer months and sees the least amount of tourism and tax revenue in April and early May. By adhering to the Stay-At-Home order and doing everything in our power to ensure COIVD-19 doesn’t spread in our community, Pagosa Springs can both protect the most vulnerable members of our community and position ourselves for tremendous summer season.

Apparently, the Lodgers Association is a newly formed group, headed by the new owner of the First Inn, Anne-Marie Sukcik. The agenda packet does not reveal which lodging establishments belong to the new Association. Once upon a time, Pagosa Springs had an active lodgers association — back in the mid-2000s — but it quietly faded away after the creation of the tax-funded Town Tourism Committee.

The Association letter urges the Town to “Ensure the Stay-at-Home order is enforced and stopping the spread of COVID-19 are top priorities…”

Other suggested actions include:

“Notify the public that the courts and sheriff are not considering or enforcing evictions in April. Request that landlords, courts and sheriff implement a 90-day moratorium on all evictions that are initiated after March 15th…”

“Defer the payment of water and sewer charges, and waiver access fees for 90 days for businesses that closed…”

“Create a simple, single point of communication (webpage) about the COVID-19 situation specific to Archuleta County…”

“Instruct Town staff to… Form, Facilitate and Administer an Emergency Funding Task Force [to] identify and
clearly communicate all programs that are available under these emergency situations…”

“Enforcement Task Force: drive the town and issue citation for non-complying businesses.”

“Support the Tourism Department in its continued work directly with tourism businesses – lodgers, restaurants, outfitters, hot springs, etc. – to create and execute a marketing campaign…”

“Defer the payment of Lodging, Sales and Property Taxes for 90 days, as the federal government has done with Income Taxes.”

“Defer the payment of license renewal and business permit fees for existing businesses for 90 days.”

You can download the full Lodgers Association letter here.

Looking over the rest of the agenda for tonight’s meeting, it appears that the Council will be familiarizing themselves with the various relief programs that have sprung up over the past couple of weeks, as Colorado deals with a health crisis, shuttered businesses, high unemployment claims, closed schools, a slow-moving federal government, and new orders coming down the pike from Denver on a daily basis. The Council will also consider an “Emergency Economic Relief Policy.”

At the March 26 work session, when Town Council member David Schanzenbaker tossed out the idea of giving every town resident $200 to help them weather the initial weeks of what’s turning out to be a nationwide economic shutdown, Town Manager Andrea Phillips asked if it wouldn’t be a better idea to provide assistance on an ‘as-needed’ basis.

Ms. Phillips:

“For example, I don’t need $200. I’m making a good salary as a Town Manager. So maybe it’s based on ‘need’? And there’s some type of qualification process? I wonder if there’s some [existing] organization that can help us with that need… so we’re giving it to the people who need it the most.”

Mr. Schanzenbaker:

“I understand, and I sympathize with that idea. But… And I agree that providing the same amount of money to everybody is a pretty blunt tool. But it’s also fast, and it’s feasible in a way that… when you start trying to partition who gets what amount, then you’ve created all this criteria, and people have to work through a system to a point where you can actually cut a check…

“That’s the benefit of taking the blunt route, and just… you skip over all those [bureaucratic] hurdles that slow you down.”

In the interests of doing something immediately, the Town Council scheduled tonight’s special meeting to discuss, among other things, the deferral of various Town fees, via a proposed resolution, Resolution 2020-09, “COVID-19 Emergency Economic Relief Policy.”

To wit:

PURPOSE/BACKGROUND:
As discussed at the Work Session on March 26, Council would like to create a temporary relief policy to allow for payment deferrals and other assistance. This type of assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic is very similar to what other communities are providing. The Resolution provides for:

  • Business licenses (new and annual renewals): deferred collection of fee for 90 days with no late fees or penalties
  • Plan review fees: waiver of fees
  • Development application fees: waiver of fees
  • Building permit fees: deferred collection of fees (50% of fee due at building permit application and remaining
    50% due at time of issuance of Certificate of Occupancy)
  • Geothermal heating utility payments: deferred collection of monthly utility payments for 90 days with no late
    fees or penalties starting with February payment due in March (deferred for February, March, April).
  • Lodging tax collections (Town only): deferred collection of monthly lodging tax payments for 90 days with no
    late fees or penalties starting with March payment due in April (deferred for March, April, and May).

The Policy would sunset on June 30 unless extended by Town Council. After 60 days following the policy adoption, the Council shall revisit the efficacy of the policy to achieve desired goals.

More blunt tools, of uncertain effectiveness. We might note that Mr. Schanzenbaker’s suggested relief payments to ordinary folks does not appear in the proposed Resolution.

We might also note that ordinary folks have not stopped paying sales taxes and lodging taxes. We still pay those taxes each time we make a purchase, or book a room. The businesses that collect those taxes, do so as agents of our local and state governments. Allowing a business to hold onto the taxes we — the ordinary folks — have already paid, might help a business “cash flow” through these rough times.

But doesn’t that seem a bit unfair? Make us pay as we always do, but then give the businesses a three-month deferral?

Read Part Five, tomorrow…

Bill Hudson

Bill Hudson

Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.