There’s a popular adage we’ve all heard. “Time is money.”
From Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748) by Benjamin Franklin:
Remember that Time is Money. He that can earn Ten Shillings a Day by his Labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that Day, tho’ he spends but Sixpence during his Diversion or Idleness, ought not to reckon That the only Expence; he has really spent or rather thrown away Five Shillings besides.
It may be useful to note that this was advice from “An Old Tradesman” to “A Young Tradesman”.
That is to say, this was not advice aimed at “A Young Capitalist” or “A Young Bureaucrat” or “A Young Developer.” But it could be mistaken for that type of advice.
We know that, based on his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin was not opposed to a friendly game of chess, or an evening of musical entertainment with neighbors. But he apparently put in eight hours of work on a daily basis. (Even on Sundays?). He reportedly retired from business at age 42, to devote himself to scientific research, diplomacy, and political revolutions.
We have a fair number of tradesmen in Pagosa Springs, who — in many cases — charge for their labor by the hour. An eight-hour day billed at $50 an hour comes to $400. A day spent skiing at Wolf Creek could therefore be reckoned as a loss of $400, in addition to the lift ticket.
A “Young Developer” lives in a slightly different financial universe. But he (or she) might still believe that time is money.
Back in the early 1970s, the company known as Eaton Pagosa began buying up and developing some former ranch properties in what’s now called the Pagosa Lakes area, four miles west of the historic town of Pagosa Springs. In order to make the project financially profitable, they obtained agreements from the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners to have the new roads adopted (and maintained) by the taxpayers. The new water and sewer infrastructure was adopted by the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) and the gas lines and electrical lines were adopted by local utilities.
By the time the project began selling residential and commercial parcels, the County had adopted over 300 miles of new roads, and PAWSD had adopted a similar mileage of water service lines.
The taxes collected by the County, from these mostly vacant subdivisions, was not near enough to maintain 300 miles of (sometimes poorly built) roads. But the roads had minimal traffic at first, and no one seemed to notice that Eaton Pagosa had built what would ultimately become a bankrupt road system.
PAWSD was in a slightly better position, because — as a government ‘enterprise’ — PAWSD collected most of its revenue via monthly fees, and could increase those fees as necessary. And indeed, the fees have increased on a regular basis, especially lately.
Eaton Pagosa included in the Pagosa Lakes project, a 27-hole golf course that uses roughly 1/4 as much water as the entire Pagosa community.
In 2004, the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) asked the taxpayers for a property tax increase in order to purchase a ranch property — the Running Iron Ranch, north of downtown Pagosa — as the site for a future water reservoir. The campaign materials explained that Pagosa Springs would be unable to ‘grow’ without an additional, very large, reservoir. Pagosa Springs would be unable to meet the community’s water demand by 2025, we were told.
The voters rejected the property tax increase.
So SJWCD collaborated with PAWSD to purchase the ranch using a loan to be covered by monthly PAWSD fees. At one point, the reservoir was estimated to cost $358 million. Now, two decades later, SJWCD still has no funding to build a reservoir, and PAWSD would like to sell the ranch and relieve its monthly customers of the ongoing debt. SJWCD has been fighting in court to prevent the sale.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer on the PAWSD Board of Directors, but this editorial reflects only my own opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD Board and staff.
Lately, the Archuleta BOCC has been conducting public listening sessions to discuss the potential to increase the County Lodging Tax from 1.9% to perhaps 6%. This tax is paid by people booking lodging outside the Pagosa Springs town limits — which means, mainly, vacation rentals in the Pagosa Lakes area. (The Town collects a 4.9% Lodging Tax within the town limits, and uses the revenue to promote tourism.)
An increase of the County Lodging Tax to 6% would increase the County revenues by about $1 million a year. It’s possible all or most of that revenue would be used for road maintenance.
It currently costs $1 million to rebuild one mile of paved road. Archuleta County maintains about 42 miles of paved road, and about 300 miles of gravel road.
The decision by Archuleta County, during the early 1970s, to permit 21 square miles of new subdivisions in the Pagosa Lakes area was thought by some to signal a thriving future for the greater Pagosa Springs area, and indeed, over the next 30 years, the economy appeared to be generally on an upward trajectory, with a few dips and stumbles.
But by 2005, the community leadership was aware that housing in Pagosa Springs was becoming unaffordable for working families.
Unfortunately, the housing restrictions put in place in Pagosa Lakes 50 years ago have made housing reform nearly impossible within that homeowners association, due to the rather permanent nature of the restrictions.
20 years later, Archuleta County and the Town of Pagosa Springs are now collaborating on a ‘Housing Action Plan’. This will be the third ‘Housing Action Plan’ since 2005, created by well-paid consultants at the behest of our local leaders. Meanwhile, the housing crisis just seems to be getting worse with each passing day. (The Town government might be purchasing some bankrupt Wyndham Resort condos in the near future to help address the crisis.)
Somehow, the government district that operates the Pagosa Springs Medical Center has managed to stay solvent, despite America’s disastrous health care system. But we may be looking at a ballot measure this November that gives PSMC permission to retain a larger share of our property taxes.
And the Archuleta School District has been discussing a new $125 million PreK-8 facility, to allow them to abandon three functional facilities in downtown Pagosa. That proposal might also be on the November ballot.
Tonight, at 5:30pm, the Town Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on a proposal to develop yet another subdivision that — if local history teaches us anything — will put additional stress on Pagosa’s slowly failing infrastructure. That meeting will be held at Town Hall. You can view the meeting packet here.
Read Part Five… tomorrow…