Redistribution of subletting tax on ballot in La Plata County – The Durango Herald
Voters will be asked in November to divert 70% of annual revenue
Members of the public raised their hands to vote in favor of redistributing 70% of the county’s lodging tax during a business session before the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday. (Reuben M. Schafir/Durango Herald)
La Plata County voters will decide in November whether to use 70 percent of the county’s lodging tax revenue for affordable housing and child care.
The Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to accept a ballot question after community members made passionate public comments in favor of the reassignment.
The county imposes a 2% tax on hotel stays and short-term rental stays in the unincorporated county. Revenue from that tax – nearly $1 million last year – is currently funneled to Visit Durango, the region’s destination management and marketing organization.
If the ballot questions are passed, the county will have broad discretion in how it uses the revenue to meet workforce needs.
In written comments, business leaders with interests in the tourism industry warned that a decline in marketing could endanger an already fragile industry.
The lodging tax uses tourism revenue to boost its own industry. Visit Durango highlights the region and its outstanding attractions and is committed to sustainable recovery. If visitor numbers decline due to a decline in tourism marketing, lodging tax revenue will also decline, some warn.
Many speakers compared the elements involved – tourist attraction, accommodation and childcare – to the three legs of a stool on which the tourism industry balances.
Tuesday’s decision will give voters the opportunity to express their opinion on the question of what contribution the fuel should make: in the first place, attracting tourists or in the second place, supporting workers.
“Should La Plata County be authorized, without a tax increase, to expand the permissible uses of the existing lodging tax to support our local workforce by providing child care programs and affordable housing options for the tourism-related workforce, including seasonal and other workers in La Plata County, with seventy percent (70%) of the existing lodging tax revenues to be used for operating and capital expenditures to acquire, construct, maintain, expand, renovate, relocate, improve, promote, support, fund and finance housing and child care for workers in La Plata County and for any other purposes permitted by law, and the remaining thirty percent (30%) of the existing lodging tax revenues to be used for local tourism promotion and marketing, with expenditures to be made in accordance with state budget laws and other applicable laws governing local governments?”
Service sector workers, many of whom spoke Spanish and were provided with live interpreter services by the county, warned that the urgent need for child care was reducing the capacity and quality of the available workforce.
“We’re in a battle we shouldn’t be having: ‘Should we focus on tourism?’ or ‘Should we focus on childcare?’ Because at the end of the day, those two things are totally connected,” says Carolina Diaz, a former waitress who had to quit her job in 2020 because she couldn’t find childcare for her newborn.
The cries of Claudia Bencomo’s 27-day-old infant occasionally interrupted public comments – a real-time reminder to the board of how real the struggle for child care is in the region.
Those who spoke in favour of redistribution recognised the need for tourism, but said that the economy could only continue to boom if there were workers for the service jobs.
“We could literally fill 10 Riverhouses,” said Becky Malecki, executive director of Riverhouse Children’s Center. “We get 15 calls a week from people we have to turn away because we don’t have space.”
Doug McCarthy, CEO of Local First, was one of only two speakers to urge caution on redistricting. And even McCarthy urged commissioners to look for balance, but not to abandon redistricting altogether.
Before the funds can actually benefit child care or housing, several steps must be taken, the commissioners warned. The first step is for voters to approve the issue in November.
