At year’s end, numbers of officers in the Mammoth Lakes Police Department continued to drop and concerns grow over public safety. So far, citizens have not demanded any new tax measures to cover cuts voted on by the Mammoth Town Council, but business owners have seriously focused on taxing themselves to pay for more marketing and air service. It’s called a Business Improvement District.
Mammoth Lakes Tourism Director John Urdi said that the exploratory committee on this subject planned to meet January 8th to confer with an attorney on which retail stores could become a part of the improvement district and how much they should be taxed. At year’s end, the proposed BID plan included a 1% tax on gross income for lodging; 1.5% on retail and restaurant income and 2% on lift tickets and ski school. All the new taxes would raise close to $4 million.
None of it would go to the Town to offset service cuts. Town government would receive a fee for administering the tax. The breakdown of the $4 million raised would go like this – $2 million on marketing, $1.1 million on air service marketing, and $175,000 each on public relations, special events and administrative costs.
The hang-up, so far, has been retail. A number of store owners believe a 1.5% tax is too high. They also think Vons, Rite-Aid and the Do-It Center should be included in the taxing district. The proposal does not include those big name stores.
Tourism Director Urdi said that the exploratory committee members did not want to impact local residents. Retailers say if the big stores are included, everyone could likely pay a lower tax. If a majority of business owners approve of the proposed BID plan, it would go to public meetings and to the Town Council.
The good news is the economy is turning around and Mammoth is on pace to have a really good year. Thanks to mother nature. I bet June Mountain would have made money this year.
The economy is turning around? The next two months will tell that truth. What you recently experienced was nothing more then good snow conditions over a holiday period, that hardly means the economy is turning around.
I do hope you are right though 🙂
How is taxing the consumers to pay for airline subsidies, business, marketing and administrative costs by raising additional sales taxes, equate to “Business owners have seriously focused on taxing themselves”? Do you think the corporate lawyers of Vons, Rite-Aid and the Do-It Center will have dissenting opinions than the attorney… Read more »
Watch out. The “Disgusting” God is watching you…. And in April, 2008 after the first judgement against the town I wrote in a letter to the Sheet: $30,000,000 — phifft! NOTHING! In the first place, the Bush administration has put the economic machinery in place to devalue the dollar faster… Read more »
Wow. My taxes are already going up a minimum of 2% this year, why would i want to pay more to eat out, buy things? This tax is a bad idea. Do these people not understand that people will have less money to spend this year, and further reducing that… Read more »