I sometimes find myself wishing I lived in a small town in Colorado, where spirited citizens gathered regularly to work together and address important issues in the community. A place overflowing with spirited cooperation and collaboration.
Wishful thinking.
I live in Archuleta County, where people tend to brag: “We have a perfect view. We can’t see any neighbors.”
A few days ago, the Daily Post received an informational email, from the Archuleta County government’s administrative team, which we were grateful to receive, and which included this graphic:
As noted, this “Interactive Community Forum” is scheduled for next Tuesday, February 17, at 5pm at the Commissioners Meeting Room, 398 Lewis Street.
Do Archuleta County citizens and taxpayers want more information about roads and infrastructure… or about the Community Plan update… or about potential Lodging Tax changes… or water resources… or recreation and trails… or public safety… or housing and land use?
Do we have ideas and concerns? Maybe, complaints? Do we want to work together, to come up with solutions for shared community issues?
Last summer, the County Commissioners invited the community to two “forum-type” events concerning a potential increase to the County Lodging Tax. We shared the invitations here in the Daily Post. The weekly Pagosa Springs SUN shared the invitations as well. The meetings were held at the County Fairgrounds.
Very few business owners or taxpaying citizens showed up for these two “community listening sessions”.
In the photo above, we see in the audience: four business owners, two County officials, a school board member, a marketing director, and a SUN reporter.
Perhaps if the forum had concerned “roads”, the attendance would have been better? (In fact, much of the commentary from the three commissioners dealt with the potential use of increased Lodging Tax to fund road maintenance.)
Please forgive me if I express some skepticism about the upcoming February 17 event. An “Interactive Forum” that tries to deal with roads and infrastructure… and a Community Plan update… and a potential Lodging Tax increase… and water resources… and recreation and trails… and public safety… and housing and land use…
…all in the same evening?
Any one of these issues requires many hours of discussion, to get even a partial understanding of the situation.
I’ve been reading, lately, a book by political humorist P.J. O’Rourke: On the Wealth of Nations.
Mr. O’Rourke spent some time reading a notable book by Scottish economist Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, and he summarized its salient points — with his commentary — so the rest of us don’t have to plow through 600 pages of outdated English prose.
Mr. Smith’s treatise was first published in 1776 — March 9, 1776, to be exact — meaning that Mr. Smith had no chance to comment on the Declaration of Independence, since it hadn’t yet been written, nor on the American Revolution and its economic outcomes. In one particular paragraph in his 600-page book, Mr. Smith used a metaphor of “an invisible hand” that seems to guide capitalists to accidentally improve the standard of living for employees, despite the fact that the capitalists are in fact focused on increasing their own personal wealth. Some 20th century economists latched onto that metaphor.
From Wikipedia:
Going far beyond the original intent of Smith’s metaphor, twentieth-century economists, especially Paul Samuelson, popularized the use of the term [“invisible hand”] to refer to a more general and abstract conclusion that truly free markets are self-regulating systems that always tend to create economically optimal outcomes, which in turn cannot be improved upon by government intervention.
We do not have “truly free markets” here in Pagosa Springs, or in Colorado. Our economic systems are, in some cases, tightly controlled and limited by government intervention, and in other cases, generously subsidized by government intervention.
Do the citizens and taxpayers want these interventions? I suspect that many are not fully aware of the ongoing interventions, or else have accepted them as basically beneficial. Or unavoidable.
But our local governments occasionally act like they want our opinions. Do we have the time, and the inclination, to offer our thoughts, and our community-minded focus?
Perhaps we’d rather stay home and enjoy our perfect view. No neighbors.
In Part One, I mentioned the decision by Archuleta Board of County Commissioners Veronica Medina and Warren Brown to solicit proposals for updating the Archuleta County Community Plan, from companies experienced in updating or creating ‘Community Master Plans’. As I understand it, the RFP (Request of Proposal) will likely mention a possible budget of up to $140,000, and will require the revised plan to meet specifications laid out by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA). Failure to meet DOLA’s specifications will affect the availability of future government grants from DOLA and several other agencies.
I also mentioned that Commissioner John Ranson voted ‘nay’ on distributing the RFP. In clarifying his vote, he referred to his desire to — instead — direct more money towards maintenance of County roads. Specifically, he mentioned “hopefully another pool of money with the Lodging Tax increase.”
“Hopefully”… because such an increase in Lodging Tax must be approved by the voters in Archuleta County. A 2025 state law allows county governments to collect a Lodging Tax of up to 6%, and to use those revenues to support housing, child care, infrastructure and emergency services.
At the moment, the Lodging Tax collected by the County — 1.9% on overnight stays in motels and vacation rentals — can be used only for marketing and advertising. But with voter approval (this coming November?) a tax of up to 6% could be used mainly for road maintenance.
It could also be used to support housing and childcare. That is to say, to support working people. The people who keep our economy functioning.
Or it could be used for road maintenance.
Commissioner Ranson has been consistently clear, that he favors using any additional revenue from a voter-approved Lodging Tax increase for road maintenance.
Last Tuesday, he voted against an update to the Community Plan that would highlight potentially effective housing policies and regulations, while also helping to quantify the long-term water needs for Archuleta County.
So that workers can afford to live here, and have enough water.
Road maintenance is very important. So is housing… and water…