Following the decline of extractive industries here, Pagosa’s economy is sometimes thought to rely mainly on tourism.
We no longer have the thriving timber industry we had back in the 1960s, and some claim the forests have become ‘overgrown’ since then. We have a few oil wells operating in the southwestern corner of Archuleta County.
Ranching and farming, overall, appear to be a slight drain on the economy. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the agricultural industry in Archuleta County generated a net loss of about $2.1 million in 2017. That’s negative $2.1 million, net income, resulting from about $11.2 million in agricultural sales… an average loss per farm of about $5,300.
68 percent of our local farms and ranches sold less than $10,000 in products. According to USDA.
Pagosa’s tourism industry, meanwhile, has demonstrated a certain resilience during the global pandemic. Here’s Tourism Director Jennie Green, reporting to the Town Council on August 20, comparing the Lodgers Tax collections for 2020 compared to the same months in 2019.
“Town collections of Lodgers Tax were up significantly for the month of June. 24.8%. June almost matched our strongest July, which was last year, so a rather substantial increase. And with that, May was not down nearly as significantly as we had expected.”
That summarized the Town Lodgers Tax, which is collected and remitted by motels and vacation rentals within the Town limits, at a rate of 4.9%. The County collects a separate 1.9% Lodgers Tax on units located in the unincorporated county. Many of those units are vacation rentals.
“The County’s report includes April, May and June, and given that vacation rentals were closed in April and May, the numbers are a bit surprising. They were up 16.1% [over the previous year’s second quarter…]
“…So combined, January through June, the total Town and County [Lodgers Tax] revenues are down only 5.1%…
“With all of that said — and this will be a topic of conversation tomorrow, during the [Tourism Board’s] budget retreat — we still are in extremely uncertain times. We are faring better than I had expected. I’m still very curious to see how this will continue to play out, especially looking at winter, when we’re going to have flu season, with symptoms that match the pandemic.
“Not sure if we will see a decrease in travel as a result of all that…”
As many readers will remember, the month of June was pretty crazy in Pagosa, in terms of tourists… both those driving through on the highway, and those wandering around in town. I’m sure many locals assessed this invasion the same way I did — that the potential tourists had been pent up at home for most of March, all of April, and most of May, and as a result had fairly exploded into town in June. I assume that, during the springtime increases in COVID-19 cases, many people had canceled their planned vacations if those trips included plane flights — no one wanted to be crammed into an airplane for several hours, breathing possibly-tainted air. So vacations that could be accessed via car or truck were probably high on everyone’s priority list, if they weren’t stuck at home doing ‘essential’ jobs.
June was crazy. Then it seemed like things may have tapered off? Schools are now back in session in some communities, as we come through an unexpected “second spike” of summer COVID cases in many states — including Colorado.
Maybe people are growing used to sheltering at home? As Ms Green says, we still are in extremely uncertain times, if we’re talking about tourism.
Any photographer who happened to walk through downtown Pagosa Springs in the early afternoon, on a warm summer’s day — say, on August 25, 2020 — would have been able to take some pictures like the ones here. Things looked kind of quiet.
Not exactly a bustling scene.
The Springs Resort geothermal pools were busy, however. Standing on the west side of the river, I counted about 80 people enjoying the ‘naturally therapeutic’ soaking pools. 80 people, and not a single one of them was wearing a face mask.
That makes sense, of course. Who wears a mask when soaking in hot mineral water…?
We might ask the same question as we walk past the Overlook Spa on Main Street — which also features geothermal mineral baths.
Different stokes, for different folks.
But tourism makes up only a portion of the Pagosa economy. After Tourism Director Jennie Green reported the 5% decline in Lodgers Taxes this year, Town Manager Andrea Phillips reported on the sales tax collections.
“Sales tax came in strong for June — 26.6% higher than the same month in 2019. So obviously, I’m very bad at making projections during a pandemic. Between the Town and County, we brought in just shy of $1.4 million for the month of June, which is typically one of our strongest months for sales tax…
“Year to date, we are about 15.9% ahead of our budget.”
Just to be clear, the Town government didn’t actually ‘bring in’ any sales taxes of its own, even though the lion’s share of retail businesses are located within the Town limits. All of the local sales taxes collected are, technically, from a 4% Archuleta County sales tax — but the Town and County have a voter-approved agreement to share those taxes equally, on a 50/50 basis.
We nevertheless have a fascinating disconnect between the Town’s Lodgers Tax” — down 5% compared to 2019, year to date — and the shared Archuleta County sales tax — up almost 16% over the Town’s projected budget, year to date. That budget was projected before we’d heard anything about a global pandemic.
We don’t yet have the figures for July and August. It might appear that some businesses are still thriving, as we come to the end of summer.
But as we mentioned in Part One, Archuleta County’s unemployment rate has been above 11% since the end of March.
Back in December, it was about 2.7 percent.
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.