Why would a local business owner mislead the editor of the town’s newspaper about taxes paid by short term rentals?
Why hang lies on your neighbors’ doorknobs?
Okay, I’m being a bit harsh. In politics, you don’t “lie”. You deliberately leave “mistaken impressions.”
Last week, an STR group left mistaken impressions on doorknobs around town. Anonymously. They left the mistaken impression that the political hit piece was produced by the Town government. That’s brazen and cowardly.
I guess no one should be surprised that STR investors who evict working families and turn homes into mini-motels might prefer clever and well-placed fibs to the grim reality they’ve created in our community for working families.
Please don’t buy these mistaken impressions. Every STR in the town and the county enjoys a 75% tax break loophole that no other business receives. How can someone claim to be “supporting small business” by taxing all other small businesses — even businesses in the same industry — at a rate 400% higher?
The result of this massive 75% tax subsidy is clear. STRs now comprise about 16% of all homes in Archuleta County. In Durango, the number is 1.5%. Rents for large apartments have increased 200%. Rents for family-sized homes have increased 250%.
If all landlords in Pagosa start to charge these new rates, the exodus of working families from Pagosa will be biblical. Mercifully, most do not. Yet.
Ballot Measure A seeks to create a modest Workforce Housing Fee on non-resident STR investors. The fee is approximately equivalent to a 7% tax. It is far less than the 75% tax break that non-resident STRs investors enjoy and cannot honestly justify… (hence the cleverly placed mistaken impressions).
Please don’t buy the lie that 254 workforce housing units are “in progress.” (At some point “mistaken impressions” have to be honestly labelled “lies.”) There are 85 units in the planning stage and not one has broken ground. Are they affordable for working families? Do you think a converted 330 square foot motel room at $1550 per month is affordable and suitable for a family outside Munchkinland? What about a 450 square foot apartment for $1600-$1800 per month?
Without a dedicated funding stream none of the projects the Town is considering can be made remotely affordable for working families. With a dedicated funding stream, there’s a solid chance to create 200 workforce housing units over the next five years. More can be accomplished if the County could end its single-minded focus on building new buildings for itself, and place a similar fee on non-resident STR investors. The County could raise twice the money with a fee half the size. Someday the County will stop looking at itself in the mirror one hopes.
The choice right now for Town Voters is clear: continue to give non-resident STR investors a 75% tax break no one can justify, or dedicate a fraction of that money to help build decent homes for the working families that make our economy — and our community — possible.