Letter: We don't need new taxes or a higher minimum wage in South Lake Tahoe

To the editor: I‘m worried about all these new taxes being proposed. Chasing homeowners and tourists away doesn't make sense. Tourism got me started at minimum wage. I moved to Tahoe in 1979 at age 16. I was sort of on my own.

A local family restaurant hired me at minimum wage which I was happy to get as I needed to be trained. I worked my way up from busboy to prep cook to cook, then became a trusted key employee.

I saw the daily challenges the owners went through with the large ups and downs of customers because of tourist seasons. They barely made it during slow times. Locals were steady business for them, but it was the tourists that helped the restaurant survive and we employees to survive.

I met my wife there. She was waitressing and getting good tips. There were many days that I’m sure she made more than the owners did. She started young and unskilled at minimum wage just like I did. She went on to be a manager there for many years. We earned raises and bonuses because we helped the business do well, not because the City Council decided to raise our pay. We were able to eventually buy our home and go on to careers in other fields and raise our family here. It was being trained at minimum wage when we didn’t have any skills yet that got us started here.

If the new, too high, tax on motels gets voted in chasing tourists away and the Council raises the minimum wage, I don’t think local kids like my wife, and I were, will ever get hired for minimum wage and I don’t believe businesses will be able to make it.

I’m not voting for those taxes, because I’d like to see other people get their start here and stay here.

- Dan Henson
South Lake Tahoe