Photo: The October 11-14 flooding in the San Juan River overflowed the banks at the Springs Resort and covered some of the geothermal bathing pools with muddy water and debris.
Some people embrace the political philosophy known as socialism. The new mayor-elect of New York City, for example — Zohran Mamdani — is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the nation’s largest socialist organization.
From the DSA website:
Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.
Mayor-elect Mamdani defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an Independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, in last Tuesday’s November 4 election, and will take office on January 1. Mamdani won slightly more than 50% of the vote.
“The first day I spend at City Hall will be very much like the last day I spend at City Hall: It will be focused on the cost of living crisis,” Mr. Mamdani said outside City Hall on the day before the election. Can a “democratic socialist” approach make a change to the situation there? Time will tell, I suppose. But I seriously doubt that all of the 1.0 million people who voted for Mr. Mamdani consider themselves “democratic socialists”.
Like the word “success”, the word “socialism” means different things to different people. Typically, it does not mean, “using tax revenues, extracted from the general public, to subsidize capitalists.”
We do not have a large number of people I would define as “capitalists” living in Pagosa Springs. Mostly, we have retired folks, government employees, school teachers, construction workers, health care workers, folks who own small businesses, real estate agents, and people working in the tourism industry.
If I’m not mistaken, some of our larger capitalist enterprises are owned by local residents. Wolf Creek Ski Area, for example.
But some capitalist ventures are owned by folks who live elsewhere, and who extract profits from the Pagosa community. I would put Walmart, City Market, and the Springs Resort in that category.
Whether the companies are owned locally or remotely, our Pagosa economy relies on these capitalist enterprises to some degree, as does our general way of life. But a related issue is whether the taxpayers should be subsidizing these capitalist organizations.
Which brings us back to the discussion introduced in Part One. At last week’s Archuleta Board of County Commissioners work session on November 5, Commissioner John Ranson invited the newly-formed Pagosa Lodgers Association LLC to submit ideas to the Board of County Commissioners, outlining ways that the Association could use subsidies supplied by the BOCC to increase tourist visitation and spending. We note that Commissioner Ransom serves as the County’s representative on the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, which is funded by both Town and County Lodgers Tax revenues.
The lead presenter at the November 5 work session was Jesse Hensle, Marketing Director for the Springs Resort, who suggested that the October flooding events in the San Juan River had resulted in people canceling their bookings — perhaps especially in the downtown area? People viewing social media and news media videos of the flood may have suddenly decided not to visit Pagosa Springs this winter, according to Mr. Hensle.
Out of fear? Or for other reasons?
“Right now, I’ve seen that VisitPagosaSprings.com has done a lot of initiatives to cover some of this stuff, but I’m wondering what are the next steps? What are the plans? And how can we create impact today, that can help save the rest of the year.
“We’re calculating our cancellations right now. I can say, from our Resort, we’ve lost about 50% of our business in December. And that’s all the way in December. This flood happened in October, but because of the videos, people think our entire resort has been ravaged and the town is gone…
“So that brings up this weird, serendipitous opportunity to say, ‘What if the Lodgers had a little bit more control of their funds?’ This is Pagosa, the [Tourism Board] does restrict it at times. The Executive Director can’t be as nimble as she can be, because sometimes the Town Council or others have other interests or want to pull back on marketing funds. This will give us much more control of that ability…”
“This” meaning, essentially, for the County to direct taxpayer funding directly to Mr. Hensle and his Lodgers Association LLC.
Last year, the County collected about $450,000 in Lodgers Tax revenues, and handed it over the the Tourism Board and Tourism Director of Jennie Green, for the purpose of subsidizing tourism. The County’s entire amount was spent on marketing and advertising, per the Colorado law controlling “county lodgers tax”. This can include the salaries for the employees handling the marketing and advertising.
But the Colorado law has been amended recently, to allow counties to use their lodgers tax revenues for other purposes besides tourism marketing and advertising. The Town of Pagosa Spring, as a “Home Rule” municipality, already has the ability to use the Town Lodgers Tax revenues — about $1 million per year — for things like supporting community events and infrastructure improvements.
In fact, the Tourism Board does indeed use the Town’s revenues in that manner.
To access that same type of versatility, the County would have to get permission from the voters. But until that happens, all the County revenue must be used for marketing and advertising.
And apparently, the private Pagosa Lodgers Association would like the County to direct some taxpayer money in their direction. For marketing and advertising. Commissioner Ranson, for one, said he thought the Association could do a wonderful job, spending tax money.
But… would that revenue then be diverted away from the Tourism Board?