Dear Editor,
I encourage you to vote no to both STR ballot measures. 2A and 2B have been rushed to the ballot without an appropriate analysis to understand the population of STR license holders and what the impact of these increases will be on them. Nor has the City of Salida established specifically what will be done with the increased funds or set up any community oversight or transparency.
The city is treating all STR license holders as if they are renting full time while the reality is that many STR license holders utilize occasional short-term rentals as a way to afford their homes or offset the impact of inflation. In fact, just over 35 percent of the STR licenses are residential and allow renting 185 nights maximum per year.
[Ballot question] 2A will add a new tax of $1,000 in addition to the $270 License Fee. 2B will increase the nightly [Occupational Lodging] OL tax from $3.66 per occupied room to $15 per available room. For the residential occasional renter, the combined nightly taxes will likely triple – way beyond the amount that nightly room rents can be increased.
Aside from the onerous increase in taxes, ballot wording states only the funds will “be used primarily to promote affordable housing”. Given the significant impact on the local residential STR license holders along with the vague/unknown uses of the funds, I encourage you to vote no on both 2A and 2B. The city can add these to the next ballot after doing research and making a plan.
Nancy Wallace
Salida
Spoken like a true second-home owner, Nancy. If you can’t afford your vacation house without renting it out, then you can’t afford your house – period! There are plenty of people in this town that actually live here full time who can’t find affordable housing because of people like you, who choose to let their properties sit vacant 90% of the time. I pass five vacant houses on my daily morning dog walk – all nice homes that local families could be living in. I wonder if one of them is yours?