Local Issues - Local Government
I seek the office of city council to advocate for the locals. The residents who’ve lived here for years and made this place what it is. The bartenders and baristas, nurses and retirees. The people who live here, work here, and play here. Our city government continues to put the interests of the casinos, developers, and resorts first, and the locals last. 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.
Help Put Locals First in Local Government
About Scott Robbins
Four years ago I prioritized my passion for the mountains. I left an East Coast commute behind, reorganized my work as a national security analyst, and moved west. After my first summer here, I started volunteering my time as a way to give back to this community.
I’ve advocated extensively for the reopening of Fire Station 2 and the hiring of 7 new firefighters, and to pay for them as a first priority for general funds revenue, not an afterthought dependent on grants or special tax increases. I was a speaker at the “Prepare for Evacuation” event, detailing the timeline of the Camp fire that destroyed Paradise, and how those lessons apply to South Lake Tahoe.
I’ve worked with Tahoe Neighborhoods Group to pass Measure T, which will eliminate vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods.
I’ve advocated extensively in opposition to the Loop Road, which will 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 volunteer with El Dorado County Search and Rescue and the Warm Room homeless shelter.
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.
Local Issues
Fire
We must fully fund our fire department as the first priority for general revenue funds, not an afterthought dependent on a new sales tax.
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. Catastrophic fire is a matter of “when”, not “if”, and no other priorities will matter if we suffer the fate of the former city of Paradise.
Housing
We have an ongoing affordable housing crisis - 50% of all units are second homes, and 10% are vacation rentals.
We can and must kill the Loop Road, and any project that would demolish homes to speed tourists to Nevada’s Casinos.
With the city councils newly proposed regulations on shared rentals, even more housing units are slated to be moved to the tourist market. We can and must require that auxiliary dwelling unit permits be reserved for use by actual residents.
We should implement a vacancy or property surtax on second/vacation homes. This would raise revenue without hitting locals, help fund essential services, and incentivise landlords to rent on the local market.
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 trips to Mexico, 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
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. We need economic diversification. Continuing to beg tourists to behave like adults isn’t working. We need enforcement. In the past 12 months, the city has issued only 31 citations for littering, at less than $100 each. Compare this to the $500 fine for an off-leash dog. This is the brass tacks of putting tourism first and locals last.
Our city can:
Raise the transient occupancy tourism tax (TOT) from 12% to 16% (for comparison, San Fransisco is at 14%).
Limit or suspend VHR permits and limit hotel occupancy until our retail business can open at full capacity.
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 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
We are ignoring the exploitation of our local environment from relentless over-tourism. From overflowing trash on our beaches and trails, to endless miles of traffic choking our air and roads.
We cannot take seriously our city’s endless talk about leadership on the issue of long-term climate change when the threat to our immediate environment is so completely ignored. This is hypocrisy, plain and simple.
We must address the trashing of our own backyard first. Only then, can our efforts to lead on green energy, solar power and other sustainable energy solutions be taken seriously.
And a serious problem it is. We face a climate future with winters too warm for consistent snow and summers so hot and dry that Paradise-level wildfires will become the norm, not the exception.
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
Tourism economies are brittle. Service sector jobs tend to be low in pay, low in benefits, and most significantly, 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 housing, 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:
Continued expansion of Barton Hospital into a center of excellence for orthopedic and sports medicine, 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.
Most critically, the expansion of local non-tourism businesses will help our service economy, enlarging a customer base that lives, buys, and shops here year-round, helping to level-out some of the seasonal boom-and-bust of the tourist cycle.
Tahoe will always be a tourist destination, but that need not be the only thing we are.
No New Sales Taxes
NO on Measure S
Locals pay sales taxes every time we they go to the hardware store or the ski shop. Every time we buy a beer, order take-out, or buy a coffee. It hurts those who work here for the least wages the most, and lakefront vacation property owners not at all. When we buy expensive things, it costs us even more, but it costs the tourists who mostly spend small dollars at grocery stores the least.
Better alternatives include raising the transient occupancy tourist taxes (TOT), adopting a second-homeowners property or vacancy tax, or preferably, actually prioritizing spending and cutting the waste.
This is the nuts and bolts of putting tourists first, and locals last.
A Word About Endorsements
I am not endorsed by the Democratic party.
I am not endorsed by the Republican party.
I am not endorsed by the chambers of commerce, the developers, the casinos, or the resorts.
I am and will be a independent progressive voice for the locals and theirs is the only endorsement that matters.
The people who live here, work here, and play here. The restaurant workers and retirees, bartenders and baristas. It’s the locals who make Tahoe a great place to live, not just to visit.