Photo: Archuleta County BOCC listening session concerning a possible increase in the County Lodgers Tax, June 25, 2025.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners have scheduled a second ‘Community Listening Session’ focused on a possible November ballot measure that could increase the County Lodgers Tax. The public meeting will be held this Wednesday, July 23, from 6-7:30pm in the Ponderosa Room at the Springs Resort, 323 Hot Springs Boulevard.
More information is available by calling 970-264-8300.
The BOCC held its first ‘Listening Session’ on June 25 at the County Fairgrounds. The County staff had arranged chairs for what was expected to be a good size audience, but as can be seen in the photo above, the public turnout was rather meager.
The newly-formed Pagosa Lodgers Association was represented by three or four members; also in attendance were a couple of local government board members, and journalists from the local news media were present, as usual.
The stated purpose of the listening session: to hear ideas from the public about a possible increase to the County Lodgers Tax, and where the resulting additional revenues might be used.
The Colorado Legislature recently allowed statutory counties (like Archuleta County) to increase their Lodgers Tax rate from 2% to a maximum of 6%, if the voters approve of the increase. The ballot measure would also state how the County would use the funding.
Archuleta County currently collects a 1.9% Lodgers Tax from tourists booking stays within the unincorporated county. The majority of lodging entities out in the county are vacation rentals — STRs, Short-Term Rentals. Currently, those County Lodgers Tax revenues can be used only for tourism marketing, but the voters could authorize the increase taxes to be used for — for example — road maintenance, housing, parks, and other government uses.
The percentage, and the uses, could possibly be changed by the voters as soon as this coming November.
Within the Town’s municipal limits, lodging entities — mainly hotels and motels — collect a 4.9% Lodgers Tax from visitors. The Town is Home Rule, and can use the revenues for any purpose even vaguely related to tourism, as determined by the Town Council. Considering the large impacts of tourism on the Pagosa economy, the Council already has a lot of legal flexibility in determining the use of its Lodgers Tax revenues.
The lodging operators in the audience on June 25 did not appear to be fans of a tax increase, even though Commissioner Veronica Medina reminded them that a 4% tax on a $225 room stay would amount to only $9.
A variety of thoughtful comments were shared by the small audience on June 25, and the questions posed to the BOCC and its staff were answered.
And true to the announced purpose of the meeting, the majority of the discussion came from the audience rather than from the BOCC.
The BOCC also allowed audience members to react to, and respond to, previous comments made by other audience members, which added to the liveliness of the conversation.
One of the constant themes in local halls of government, over the past 25 years, has been “diversification of the economy”. Everyone recognizes the disadvantages of a tourist economy — an unpleasant overload of strangers during certain summer months vs. the dearth of business during a large part of the year… the generally low wages paid by the tourist industry;…and the negative impacts on housing availability caused by the vacation rental industry, when residential homes are converted into mini-motels.
But no one has yet figured out how to make “diversification” happen. So our local governments keep throwing money at tourism.
If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.
— Jessie Potter, featured speaker at the seventh annual Woman to Woman conference, 1981.