Local Issues - Local Government
I seek the office of city council to advocate for the locals. The bartenders and baristas, nurses and retirees - the people who live here, work here, and play here. Our city continues to prioritize the interests of the casinos, developers, and resorts. This must change, and it can change.
It’s the locals who make Tahoe a great place to live, not just a great place to visit.
Housing
Housing in South Lake Tahoe is a crisis. Tahoe is bleeding locals, and the actions of the city must meet the scale of this crisis.
Fully half of all housing units are vacant second homes - nearly 8,000 units. A vacancy fee for empty second homes would incentivize landlords to rent on the local market, as well as raising funds for affordable housing acquisition without hurting local workers. These fees have been successfully implemented in Vancouver and Oakland.
We buy and renovate the existing derelict motels along highway 50 (there are several now) into affordable workforce housing. This would be both faster and cheaper than new construction.
We must accelerate the Sugar Pines affordable housing project, of which only phase 1 (64 units) is currently funded.
Roads
I will oppose all wasteful spending that cuts into road maintenance.
Our city council has persisted in wasting dollars large and small, demolishing public trust in their handling of our taxes.
No more spending local taxpayer money subsidizing the airport ($450,000 of subsidy, just in September), no more overpriced outside consultants, and no more campground bathrooms that cost more than houses.
We can and should raise the Transient Occupancy Tourist Tax (TOT) from the current 12% to 16% (for comparison, San Francisco is at 14%), and implement a property surtax on second/vacation homes to fund necessary road repairs
Fire
We must fully fund our fire department as the first priority for general revenue funds, not an afterthought dependent on new sales taxes or grants.
We should also take common sense actions such as banning the retail sale of firewood and charcoal to tourists during the summer fire season to prevent illegal campfires and barbecues.
Our environment is one of ladder fuels and wildland-urban interfaces. The Caldor Fire was a warning we cannot ignore.
Over-Tourism
The phrase “Tahoe needs tourists” has long since become a “get out of responsibility free card”. It’s become an excuse for the casinos, developers, and vacation rental investors to justify the exploitation of our environment, the displacement of our locals, and the sacrifice of our neighborhoods and homes. We are presented with a false choice between unlimited tourism and no tourism at all.
We need a better balance, and we need economic diversification.
Our city can:
Raise the transient occupancy tourism tax (TOT) from 12% to 16% (for comparison, San Fransisco is at 14%).
Require that commercially owned and operated VHR’s obtain Tourist Accommodation Unit (TAU) permits, the same as hotels.
Increase the fines for littering to $800 and assign code enforcement officers to write actual tickets, not warnings. Enforcement must have real meaning to work.
The city should actually begin the long-term work needed to establish tourist vehicle entry limits into the Tahoe basin.
We can have a better balance. We can address the most negative impacts of over tourism. We’ve chosen to ignore this problem for years. We can choose differently.
Our Environment
The exploitation of our local environment from relentless over-tourism is visible everywhere from the overflowing trash on our beaches and trails, to the endless miles of traffic choking our air and roads.
We cannot take our city’s talk about leadership on problem of long-term climate change seriously, when we simultaneously encourage visor traffic that results in jams that can reach into Placerville.
And a serious problem it is. We already face summers so hot and dry that Caldor-level wildfires have become the norm, not the exception, and we will soon begin to see winters too warm for consistent snow.
If we do nothing, if we cannot demonstrate leadership, if we cannot be taken seriously, then the children learning to ski in Tahoe today will be the parents of the last generation to ski in Tahoe, and our jewel in the Sierras will be lost for future generations of locals.
Economic Diversification
Our tourism economy is brittle. Service jobs tend to be low in pay, low in benefits, and low in stability. Tourism is seasonal and typically the first thing on hold during economic downturns.
This is, broadly, the nature of service sector jobs everywhere, but here, these issues are magnified by the high cost and unstable nature of our housing market, where locals must compete with VHR's, ski-leases, and second homeowners.
We need diversification in our economy. Our city can encourage and assist in the development of non-tourism industry business such as:
Continued expansion of Barton Hospital into a center of excellence for orthopedic, much like the Steadman Clinic in Vail, which brings in fellowships and patients from around the world.
Expansion of outdoor wilderness education programs through LTCC and to attract schools such as NOLS.
Improving wired internet service that supports the relocation of business to Tahoe which can operate locally, and serve clients remotely.
The expansion of local non-tourism industry will help our service economy, enlarging a customer base that lives, buys, and shops here year-round.
Tahoe will always be a tourist destination, but that need not be the only thing we are.
No New Sales Taxes
NO on Measure G
Our City Council continues to push tax hikes on locals, avoiding any new taxes on tourists. This summer, the council voted 4-0 to push a new permanent 6% sales tax on cannabis, replacing a temporary fees that were set to expire. This November, I’m voting No on measure G — no new taxes on locals.
This is the second time in the last two years this council has unanimously voted to push increased sales taxes on locals, while ignoring options that would tax only tourists. The council insists they need more money but has avoided any consideration of raising the tourist occupancy tax or developing a vacant second-home tax, options which would exclusively tax tourists instead of locals
Cannabis taxation in California is absurdly high, choking the very industry legalization was intended to foster, limiting both business and employment growth. Our leaders have made legal options so expensive that illegal, cartel-grown cannabis is often cheaper — a boon to criminals who pay no taxes at all. These cartels, armed to the teeth, hide grow operations in our forests bringing pollution and fire hazards. What’s worse, local police encounters can, and have, led to shoot-outs — one of which recently killed an El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy. A cop was killed because violent cartels can make money growing illegal weed in a state that voted to legalize it.
The actions of our City Council make this situation worse.
About Scott Robbins
Six years ago I prioritized my passion for the mountains and left the East Coast behind. After my first summer here, I started volunteering my time as a way to give back to this community.
I’ve worked with Tahoe Neighborhoods Group to pass Measure T, which eliminated vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. I volunteer with the El Dorado County Economic Development Advisory Committee, and the South Tahoe Bicycle Advisory Committee.
I’ve advocated extensively in opposition to the Loop Road, which would demolish the Rocky Point neighborhood, and displace local families, all to better speed tourists to the Nevada casinos.
I have regularly engaged with the City Council and written on a wide range of local issues including over-tourism, and for reforming police protocols for handling of sexual assault victims.
I believe very strongly in the value of community and in volunteering to give back to this place which has given so much. It is the locals that are the heart and soul of this place we call home.