So just on social media alone, we know that lies spread six times faster. That’s from a 2018 MIT study. But we saw in the Philippines in 2017, if you lace it with fear, anger and hate, it goes viral… So, a lie told a million times, because a fact…
— Maria A. Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, February 10, 2026
From what I can tell — living in an isolated, politically-red mountain resort town in one of the few blue states in the American West — the traditional communication channels that kept people informed (or misinformed) during the 20th century are struggling to remain relevant.
But in a small town like Pagosa Springs, information about local affairs has historically been handled primarily by “word of mouth”. That is to say, by the rumor mill. That hasn’t really changed, except that the rumor mill has moved online.
The Pagosa-oriented social media channel that inspired this editorial series claims to have 11,000 members, which is pretty impressive in a town of 14,000 full-time residents. Nearly all of the postings were for bake sales, small business promotions, free used furniture, photos taken from the front porch, etc. But when you pose a question about increased taxes and fees, you can get 43 comments… mostly people complaining, of course, but if you’re lucky, you might actually get some accurate responses to your question.
You will also get misinformation.
How to tell the difference?
Here’s part of a posting that generated some misinformation, for example:
I guess we voted to increase sales tax by 1% to fund water (I’m ignorant on this so help me out if I’m wrong.)
To my knowledge Pagosa has a fairly cheap lodging tax compared to other resort towns — I know these funds are tricky on how the money can be used but can we not increase the lodging tax for water infrastructure to provide relief for locals on usage and tap fees?
The Town’s new 1% sales tax is related to “sewer system” repairs, not to “drinking water”. The system in need of repairs and upgrades handles the sewage generated by homes, businesses, schools, motels, offices, etc. within the Town’s Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District (PSSGID)… generally, east of Piedra Road. Residential homes within the PSSGID pay about $71 a month for sewer service.
Most residential homes and businesses west of Piedra Road are connected directly to the separate Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Vista Treatment Plant, and pay about $50 a month. Those customers do not benefit, personally, from the additional 1% sales tax.
Well… how about using Lodging Tax to address increased water fees? Is that feasible?
Here’s one of the social media responses to the question:
I understand your confusion. The 1% sales tax increase is for the Town of Pagosa Springs’ sewage system, which was heavily neglected over years, and this is not run by PAWSD, but by the Town. The Town is Homerule, so the Town may choose to spend its lodging dollars as it sees fit, but actually passed the [sewer] tax through extortion and told the small group of people who are hooked up to the Town’s sewage system that if they did not vote for this sales tax that they would raise their sewage fee by $75 a month. They passed the sales tax in fear, and then the Town still raised the fee a few dollars again, directly after, which means it’s highly likely those who passed the sales tax will eventually still be charged higher and higher fees.
Some of this information is correct, except that the Town had actually estimated that residential sewer fees would increase to more than $200 a month if the town voters didn’t approve the sales tax.
As far as the Town’s sewer customers being a “small group of people”… the Town sanitation system also serves our downtown businesses, schools, lodging, and government facilities. (And don’t forget the marijuana dispensaries.)
The Town Council did not, however, raise sewer fees directly after the vote — even though the Town staff had recommended an increase. It’s possible, but not “highly likely”, that PSSGID fees will be increased in the near future.
The posted social media response continues:
The Lodging Tax collected by the County cannot be diversified; by law it can be spent only on marketing. If we want it spent on upkeep and maintenance we would have to have a ballot initiative. As it stands, Commissioner Medina pushed to diversify it on last year’s ballot so she could expand the police force and pay for her new admin building, and the other two commissioners said they wouldn’t support it going to the ballot in 2025.
There’s a bit of misinformation in this paragraph. The County Lodging Tax can be diversified, but it takes a County-initiated ballot measure. This is not the same thing as a ‘citizen initiative’. Archuleta County does not recognize citizen initiatives.
Currently, the County can spend the $500,000 it collects annually from its Lodging Tax only on tourism marketing, but state law allows the commissioners to place a ballot measure before the voters to increase the tax to a maximum of 6% — which would generate an estimated $1.5 million per year. The ballot language would need to specify how the $1.5 million would be used, and it can be used only for certain needs: housing, child care, emergency response, infrastructure, and tourism marketing.
Since Archuleta County does not operate water and wastewater systems, I doubt the ballot measure could provide “relief” for water customers. But I’m willing to be further educated on that issue.
I’ve heard Commissioner Medina, at various meetings, suggest uses for a future Lodging Tax increase. I recall her focusing her comments on housing, emergency services, and road maintenance as appropriate uses of a Lodging Tax increase, but I understood “emergency services” to mean “EMS services”… not an expanded police force.
As it stands, I would not recommend diversification unless the ballot issue were strictly written to ensure the funds didn’t go to extravagant government buildings while our workers are living precariously and the government is gobbling up paychecks through excessive fees and taxes.
The County government has indeed built several expensive new buildings over the past decade, and that’s part of the reason the Road & Bridge budget is now in precarious shape.
But if we want to blame anyone for workers “living precariously”… there’s a bigger boogeyman than local government fees…
That boogeyman might be discussed tonight, Tuesday February 17, at Archuleta County’s “Interactive Community Forum” at the County admin office starting at 5pm.