A couple of things surprised me about the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board meeting on Wednesday, September 3, when the Tourism Department budget for 2026 was considered.
1. The Board didn’t discuss the alternative 2026 budget ideas submitted to them by the Pagosa Lodgers Association LLC.
2. And the Board showed no obvious interest in supporting housing efforts, despite knowing that our community is experiencing a serious housing crisis.
The preliminary budget proposal presented by Tourism Director Jennie Green predicted nearly $1.7 million in 2026 Lodgers Tax revenue, to be spent with the intention of further increasing visitation to Pagosa Springs. That would be an increase of about 5% above the 2025 Tourism budget. More about that budget later.
The Board also heard reports from members representing local industry organizations.
The meeting, held at Town Hall, began with an opportunity for the public to make comments. Of the four people in the audience, I was the only person not representing the tourist industry. (I don’t consider the Daily Post to be part of the tourism industry.)
And I had come, prepared to make a proposal to the Board.
About housing.
I handed out copies of my draft Daily Post editorial — a draft of the article that appeared yesterday as Part One of this series — and I referred to the graphic that would appear in that editorial. I mentioned that the Lodgers Tax collections for 2021 were triple the amount collected in 2013.
A significant increase?
And because the Lodgers Tax are calculated as a percentage of lodging charges, this indicates that the lodging industry, in 2021, earned three times as much money, collectively, as they did in 2013.
Is this an industry that needs continued tax subsidies? Continually increasing tax subsidies?
From my testimony to the Board on Tuesday:
“The IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement) approved by the Town Council and the Board of County Commissioners yesterday (September 2) specifies that some of the money from the Town’s Lodgers Tax collections can be used for things other than tourism marketing.
“We’re looking at an industry that is making three times as much money as they were making a decade ago — and we’re also looking at a community suffering from a serious housing shortage…
“I serve on the PAWSD [Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District] board, and we provided about $800,000 worth of [Capital Investment Fee] waivers to affordable housing projects last year. That helped subsidize 63 new housing units, already built or now under construction.
“If this Tourism Board would set aside half that amount — $400,000 — in your 2026 budget, it could be used to provide down-payment assistance to people who can’t quite afford to get into a house…
“I spoke with Emily Lashbooke at the CDC [Community Development Corporation] and she said that would be a great help; they could get their last three 2025 homes sold. They’re struggling to get qualified buyers [at the required AMI levels] and they would love to get some down-payment assistance, to get families into those homes…
“It’s so difficult, to get this whole thing to work — to build affordable housing.
“So my suggestion to this body is that you set aside $400,000 into a down-payment assistance fund, to help the workers who are helping to run your businesses, and get them into homes, so they aren’t living in RVs and tents.
“And you certainly have enough money to do that. If we look at 2013, when the Pagosa economy was doing pretty well — as far as I can recall — and you’re now collecting three times that amount? It seems like you could easily offer some support to affordable housing…”
As noted, I had made the same general suggestion to the Town Council the previous evening, on Tuesday — to redirect $400,000 from tourism marketing, towards housing. That would still leave almost $1.3 million to subsidize the tourism industry, according to the budget presented to the Tourism Board on Tuesday.
I should mention in passing, another presentation, by the Pagosa Area Recreation Coalition’s Bob Milford. That group, perhaps better known as PARC, has been very successful in obtaining government grants to develop plans and maps, but is apparently hoping to get financial support from Lodgers Taxes as well, with the goal of making Pagosa recreation more pleasant for everyone.
The Tourism Board has supported recreation projects in the past.
The annual Tourism budget gets recommended by the Tourism Board, but must be approved by the Town Council and also by the BOCC, according to the new IGA. And the new IGA specifically allows Lodgers Tax to be used to support housing efforts.
The idea being, I presume, that town with a dysfunctional economy will be unattractive to tourists?
Or perhaps our elected leaders subscribe to simple idea that all Pagosa residents need a roof over their heads?
The draft 2026 budget, presented by Tourism Director Jennie Green, made no mention of housing. But it did mention $250,000 for “beautification and parks”.
You can download the draft budget slide show here.
Let’s dig into the proposed Tourism Board budget, and also the alternative draft budget suggestion from the newly-formed Pagosa Lodgers Association — which also does not mention housing as a benefit to the Pagosa community.