Letter: Councilmember sees Measure N as expensive, invasive, bureaucratic and unnecessary

Dear Citizens, This is my third letter this year to you, the citizens of South Lake Tahoe. The statement and opinions in this letter are mine alone as your elected representative and are not the official opinion of the city council.

In my first letter, I alerted you about a small group of people led by one rogue city council person, Scott Robbins, intent on trying to raise your taxes. I pointed out that now is not the time to increase any taxes of any kind. I wrote about Liberty utility bills going up 40 percent and STPUD raising rates, both added tremendously to our home budgets, which are already heavily impacted, due to inflation. Our residents had enough to deal with.

I warned that the council’s strategic plan process was being hijacked by a parliamentary maneuver that was eating up hours and hours of expensive staff time, chasing oddball ideas, and costing tens of thousands of your hard-earned tax dollars due to council meetings going many hours overtime.

Mr. Robbins' ideas have regularly diverted us away from what the council had already voted on to be accomplished and frankly, in my opinion, his policies of choice would be unmitigated disasters.

In my second letter, I outlined what the slew of new taxes being brought up were, as well as, what effect they would have as a solution to the false dark picture being painted. I explained that as a long-term member of the city finance committee, I was sure that not only was the city already in good financial shape, but that we were well on our way to addressing the housing issue, with about 500 apartments and homes underway, as well as, working with TRPA to change their restrictions. Good things are happening! Doom and gloom are not the true picture of our housing future. In fact, we were recently recognized as one of the top 10 cities in the state for our progress on housing. There is no need to raise taxes on anyone, especially in this economy.

There is a trio of people who are trying to raise taxes on every group they can find. They appear to not understand basic economics. They also appear to subscribe to a misguided philosophy that high taxes and government control are the best answer to every issue when it is most often the actual problem. The Vacancy Tax, Measure N, that they sponsored is a prime example of the wrong solution to a problem that is already well on its way to being solved.

Mr. Robbins was also for an enormously increased real estate transfer fee that would have greatly raised the price of homes. He tried to enact a Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) increase, that would make us one of the most expensive places to stay in the entire country. Then he tried to raise the minimum wage in our city to $23 per hour, which would cause many people to lose their jobs and cause more businesses to close. There are several other taxes he has brought up that most likely he’ll try in the future like the Basin User Fee and a $30 per night parking fee at local motels.

However, Mr. Robbins and his followers have managed to accomplish something that we haven’t seen in many years. He has caused a coalition of community organizations and local citizens to form in opposition to all the many taxes he has tried. Those opposed are a healthy mix of business groups, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, and decline to state locals and second homeowners who are collectively outraged at being attacked for no good reason.

This six-organization coalition, supported by hundreds of local citizens from many different persuasions, turned out to council meetings to protest and convince our council to do the right thing and not raise taxes. Thankfully the council listened to you all and responded by voting down each wrong-minded proposal. That is, all but one of us.

Now, because of copying this Vacancy Tax measure from Berkeley and San Francisco, and clearly deceiving the petition signers, they have leveraged Measure N on to the November Ballot. It is based on the premise that if someone else has something you want you can take it from them through the initiative process. In this case they craftily came up with a tax that those being primarily targeted cannot even vote to stop! How fair is that?

Citizens who have read the actual wording are in shock over the provisions requiring every single one of the 16,000+ homeowners in South Lake Tahoe to fill out an affidavit every year, under penalty of perjury, stating how they plan to use their home and who will be staying in it for how long.

While Measure N is aimed at forcing second homeowners into renting out their homes with penalties up to $6,000 per year, local residents who own and live in their own homes are also swept up in the intrusive net that would require audits going back five years, proving that they occupied their home for a minimum of half the year. Obviously, a huge, expensive, invasive, bureaucracy would have to be created to track our movements. There are too many questions raised to mention them all in this letter. Since the police are currently in charge of enforcing VHR and nuisance complaints, would the “Karens” among us be tattling on their neighbors, having officers, who we need to fight real crime, knocking on our doors? How many IRS-like employees would need to be hired to monitor our movements and to go through our purchases investigating “when, what, and where” to prove we did things locally? Would they come onto our property to look in our windows? One citizen asked if they would use Apple Tags on our cars to track where we are.

Many of the concerns were about the legality of this untested law and the invasion of privacy. Would it be in court for years to come and at taxpayers' expense? Many questioned how poorly this initiative was written. In fact, not one cent is actually guaranteed to go to build even one affordable house! The most glaring comparison is the California lottery. We all got fooled as it was sold to the voters as being more money for schools. It turned out to be a bait-and-switch scheme. The proponents of this terribly written tax grab also allude to improving our schools in some convoluted way. They even want us to believe that higher taxes on homes would somehow lower the purchase price. That is just one of many obvious untruths being foisted upon you, the citizens of this city. The route they have chosen to get this thing past you is to try to make it red vs blue, rich versus poor, and haves versus have-nots. When it is simply just wrong versus right and nonsense vs common sense.

I urge you to investigate for yourselves. Read the actual initiative and attend any informational town hall meetings. There have been two, so far hosted by the opposition. I’m sure there will be more town hall meetings as the need for more information, volunteers to do various tasks, phone calls and door-to-door visits with friends and neighbors. I’m sure that donations would be appreciated.

I have published my contact information and personal cell number in each letter to you, the owners of the city. As a result, I’ve received scores of emails and calls overwhelmingly against this new government boondoggle.

As a result of your letting me know your opinions, I have signed on to the effort to oppose this train wreck of an unnecessary law. Obviously, I’m voting No on Measure N. I hope you do too. Go to the coalition website at www.stopmeasuren.com

Tamara Wallace, City Councilmember
530-545-2623
twallace@cityofslt.us