One thing’s for certain: We have a lot to look forward to in 2022. Let’s all do our part and resolve to get involved to make our community better.
— from an editorial by Terri Lynn Oldham House in the Pagosa Springs SUN, January 6, 2022.
I shared this same quote from SUN publisher Terri House, above, in Part One on Friday. It implies an interesting New Year’s resolution: to get involved, to make our community better.
Those are a couple of goals many journalists strive for, or hope for. A better community. More citizen involvement. Along with cost-effective government, and ethical businesses, and supportive community organizations.
But “the community”, as a whole, doesn’t always agree on the definition of “better”. Nor do government and business leaders always agree on the definition.
We don’t always agree, for example, on the importance of diversity.
And inclusivity.
(In fact, my computer’s spell-check doesn’t even recognize ‘inclusivity’ as an authentic word. It prefers ‘inclusiveness’.)
And regarding our failure to agree on what might be ‘better’… six Town Council members could not agree on the language in Ordinance 968 at last Tuesday’s regular meeting at Town Hall. The disagreement centered on two tiny words. A total of four letters.
How very important two little words can be.
When the Council asked the Town staff, last November, to bring them an ordinance directing a portion of the Town Lodgers Tax away from tourism promotion and toward workforce housing, Town Manager Andrea Phillips and her staff created Ordinance 968, for possible Council approval — first reading — in December. Town ordinances require two ‘readings’. If approved on the first reading, the Council must wait at least two weeks to allow the general public to study and comment on the proposed law, before considering the ordinance at a second reading.
Years of experience with representative democracy have taught us that The People might, during those two weeks between the first reading and the second reading, find flaws in the new ordinance — perhaps, serious flaws — and might be able to suggest improvements.
Assuming The People are paying attention. Assuming The People have resolved to get involved, to making our community better.
The meat of Ordinance 968, as presented to the Council on December 7, sounded like this:
…Beginning in January 2022 with revenues collected in February for the month of January 2022, town lodgers’ tax revenues shall be appropriated and expended upon authorization by the Town Council for the following purposes:
(a) Within the annual Town General Fund Budget fifty percent (50%) of the annual anticipated revenues deriving from Town lodgers’ taxes in the following fiscal year shall be allocated for:
(i) Housing Programs and Projects. Annual expenditures shall be utilized for housing programs and projects that address needs for affordable, middle income, workforce and attainable housing. Uses shall include, but not be limited to: the acquisition of land for housing development, construction of housing, conversion of existing structures for housing…
(ii) Improving town infrastructure related to housing programs and projects as hereafter determined by the Town Council.
(iii) Improving wastewater infrastructure related to housing programs and projects as hereafter determined by the Town Council and the Board of the Pagosa Springs [Sanitation] General Improvement District.
This proposed re-allocation of Lodgers Tax revenues, for various types of housing projects and infrastructure, has been consistently opposed by a majority of the appointed members of the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, over the past six months. That board’s budget, funded by taxes on visitors, has increased astronomically over the past decade, from about $487,000 in 2011 to about $1.1 million in 2020… and about $1.3 million in 2021.
The proposed re-allocation, to help fund housing, was recommended by the Town Planning Commission back in July — without mentioning a specific percentage. A specific percentage — 50% — was later recommended by local non-profit Pagosa Housing Partners (PHP), based on the calculation that the Tourism Board would still have well over $500,000 to spend on tourism promotion, and also based on the belief that affordable workforce housing is absolutely essential to a successful tourism economy.
PHP’s recommendation was based also on a recent survey of Pagosa business owners and managers, many of whom appear greatly disturbed by a lack of housing options, and by watching our community be simultaneously overrun by a tourist horde during 2020 and 2021.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer board member with Pagosa Housing Partners.
The PHP board approached the Town Council with a proposal to petition an ordinance onto the Town’s upcoming April 5 ballot, to find out if the general public — the town voters — support the idea of using a portion of the Lodgers Tax to support housing options.
After much discussion, the Town Council determined that they could pass such an ordinance without needing to ask the opinion of the voters. Thus, Ordinance 968 was presented on December 7 for a first reading.
During the consideration of the ordinance, a change was made to the language.
(a) Within the annual Town General Fund Budget fifty percent (50%) of the annual anticipated revenues deriving from Town lodgers’ taxes in the following fiscal year shall be allocated for…
… was revised to add two little words. “up to”.
(a) Within the annual Town General Fund Budget up to fifty percent (50%) of the annual anticipated revenues deriving from Town lodgers’ taxes in the following fiscal year shall be allocated for…
Of course, this seemingly minor change radically alters the meaning of the ordinance. Rather than requiring an annual investment in affordable workforce housing, the revised ordinance would now require absolutely nothing at all. A future Council could allocate 0% of the Lodgers Tax to housing, and still meet the legal meaning of the revised ordinance.
Instead of creating a dedicated funding stream to address possibly the most serious problem in the community — a dedicated funding stream which was called out as one of the key goals in the 2019 Council-approved ‘Roadmap to Affordable Housing’ — the Council had passed an ordinance that guarantees an annual budget fight between the Tourism Board, on one side, and the Town Planning Commission and local housing advocates, on the other.
Instead of biting the tourism bullet, and aggressively addressing our housing crisis, the Council set the stage for continuing division and discord.