Preliminary County budget has almost $7.2M coming to Lake Tahoe Basin from TOT

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - It was great news for the Lake Tahoe Basin last week at the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors special budget meeting. The recommended budget specific to the use of Discretionary Transient Occupancy showed the unincorporated portion of El Dorado County in the Basin getting more of its fair share.

Approximately $7 million in Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenue is collected in the county portion of Lake Tahoe annually.

"We are all too aware of the fact that hardly any of these funds are returned to the Basin in the form of services, road maintenance, staffing, etc.," said Supervisor Brooke Laine. She analyzed several years’ worth of historical distribution of TOT. Based on that analysis, the Basin received between 25-28 cents back in services for every $1 of TOT collected."

Supervisor Laine has announced Tuesday that in the draft 2024-25 El Dorado County budget (due to be approved in June 2024), the Basin is scheduled to receive over $7 million (an increase of 61 percent over last year) of the $11 million discretionary TOT projected revenue.

“I am gratified to share this news," said Laine. "There is still much more
work that needs to be accomplished to address past deficiencies and how the County allocates its resources. For far too long, the Tahoe Basin has contributed mightily towards producing revenue for the County, and we all know that we are often overlooked when it comes to services, staffing, snow removal, road maintenance, and other needed resources. I am very thankful to my fellow Supervisors, all of whom supported this action. I also am very grateful to the dedicated and talented County staff that worked with me to make this action possible.”

It should be noted that these budget changes do not reflect the funds collected based on the passage of Measure S - the voter-approved increase in TOT dedicated to road maintenance and snow removal in the El Dorado County portion of Tahoe.

The list in the photo above shows an overview of the $7,199,886 investment slated to come our way.

The list above represents over $4.7M in new revenue to the Tahoe Basin. There are still many needs to be addressed, but high on the list of priorities are road issues (rehabilitation, maintenance, improvement), VHRs, and transit services. Current data demonstrates that roads in the Basin are in significant disrepair (43 percent are deemed “failed” or “failing”), thus the need for giving this precedence.

Supervisor Laine said she looks forward to working towards the next steps in making necessary improvements within the Tahoe Basin portion of El Dorado County.