Supervisors jockey for piece of tourist occupancy tax pie

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - During a special meeting on Tuesday the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors divided up the undesignated collected tourist occupancy tax (TOT) to several different entities, though not all requests were funded.

There is nothing in the County tax code or ordinance that require any specific use for the ten percent collected per room night in the unincorporated areas. While they may not be code to direct its use, the County has policy of using it toward the impact of tourism and economic development, support of tourism and promotional activities, and veteran's programs.

Historically the tax revenue is distributed as follows:

10 percent of actual revenue - Treasure-Tax Collector (for staff and admin costs for Host Compliance, and hearings officer)
5 percent of actual revenue - Veteran's Commission
51 percent of budget - Economic development including staff, projects and service contracts like Wagon Train, El Dorado County Visitor's Authority and Film Commission, El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce, Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, and the Tahoe Prosperity Center.

The rest goes to general, ongoing mandated and discretionary County obligations.

The fiscal year projected revenue from collected TOT was $5,000,000. At its March 9 meeting, the Board of Supervisors spread out $2,846,292 to:

• Treasurer Tax Collector ($373,500)
• Sheriff Search and Rescue ($265,000)
• Economic Development ($1,242,900)
• Greater Sacramento Economic Council ($63,252)
• Veteran’s Commission ($175,000)
• Veteran's Additional Position ($90,700)
• Veteran's House Council ($15,000)
• Wagon Train ($10,000)
• El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce ($240,920)
• El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce - Film Commission ($150,750)
• El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce ($110,320)
• Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce ($78,950)
• Tahoe Prosperity Center ($30,000)

This left $2,153,708 to be allocated to a list of requests for addressing the impacts of tourism in the county. Those lists added up to $4,539,163.

The Board voted to spend that balance on the following items:
• $1,300,000 - Road Maintenance
• $500,000 - Snow Plow (Snow Removal Equipment)
• $142,500 - Code Enforcement (Additional Code Enforcement Officer and vehicle)
• $85,500 - Additional Senior Development Tech
• $68,000 - El Dorado Hills Fire (Search and Rescue 2020 Impacts)
• $5,800 - Georgetown Fire (Rescue Equipment)
• $222,000 - Lake Valley Fire District Request (Visitor Calls for Service 2020 Impacts)
• $350,000 (not to exceed) - Lake Valley Fire District Request (Squad/Quick Attack
fire apparatus) funding to be received after actual cost is determined.

Funding when over $5,000,000 collected:
• $350,000 for staffing for Community Planning including Rural Centers

"It’s a good start for what we need for the impacts of tourism in Tahoe," said El Dorado County Supervisor Sue Novasel who represents the region from Pollock Pines to Lake Tahoe.

Resident Janet McDougall called into the meeting to suggest they spend money on restrooms for Tahoe Paradise Park and Clean Tahoe for cleaning trash from tourists, both one time needs. She also suggested a committee be formed to get input from worthwhile organizations so everyone has a chance to get funding. "The lion's share is coming from Lake Tahoe, we would like to see a decent amount of money to come back here to deal with tourist impacts," said McDougall.

Tahoe Paradise Park has seen an increase of usage during the pandemic without an increase in revenues with no weddings or special events. Joe Cardinale from the park's board asked the Supervisors to consider them for funding.

The Lake Tahoe Basin collects about 90 percent of the vacation home rental (VHR) taxes with the West Slope collecting 100 percent of hotel taxes as well as the balance of the VHR revenue. It is projected a revenue of over $5.2M will come from:

$1,941,801 - Lake Tahoe Basin direct payments from VHR owners
$898,776 - West Slope direct payments from hotels and VHR owners
$2,458,616 - Collected by AirBnB for VHRs. They send funds in one lump sum without an address attached, so this amount is not broken up between areas of the counties.