Opinion: The Vacancy Tax threatens our community

Spring weather in Tahoe is here, and just like that, the snow at lake level has melted. Last week marked that time of year when the days started to get a little longer, and our family filed our taxes. The proposed Vacancy Tax is another tax that I do not want to pay and is not right for this community. As a full-time resident, full-time worker, primary homeowner, and father, how can anyone in good conscience be attempting to dictate my future?

Countless posts online on social media and in local and regional news outlets have detailed the negative impacts to South Lake Tahoe should this pass in November. The intentions of this tax make itself clear in that there is no language specifically required to be spent on affordable housing, and that this is nothing more than a naive effort to magically fix the problems we face in the basin.

I’ve sat and listened in on many city council meetings, as the council discusses issues related to housing, costs, affordability, and proposals. I’ll remind all of you reading this that no member of our city council, Scott Robbins included, or proponents of the vacancy tax, have any formal training or education degrees in city planning, economics, labor studies, or other areas to justify this effort.

The city and proponents of the tax haven’t put forward any specific studies for this tax. There are a multitude of unintended consequences. Supporters of this tax claim they are looking forward to the radical changes to our community. The fact is none of us, those for and against, can truly understand the magnitude of what this will mean for South Lake. There’s a reason this is going to the ballot, as the City Council the community elected chose not to move forward with this effort due to the massive concerns and issues with the measure.

Scott Robbins uses his time on social media to demean his own constituents and has hidden behind canned responses, and asks community members to speak and engage, and that he’s open to it. Post after post, we are speaking out. We are against this effort. Yet he refuses to engage in any productive manner.

Now that tax season has wrapped up for our family, we’ve been looking ahead to the house project season we all experience in Tahoe. We have fence and yard work to do, and a few odds and ends around the house. We’re holding off, as we evaluate how much we want to invest in our house and into our community. Why hire locals and invest thousands in our home if we are under threat on how we can use our home, and live our life in the future here in South Lake Tahoe? Why would we want to live in a place that wants to dictate our lives?

We have come to the only logical conclusion regarding the Vacancy tax:

-The political policies put forward by Scott Robbins and Amelia Richmond are a threat to me and my family’s ability to plan and live our lives

-The political policies put forward by Scott Robbins and Amelia Richmond are a threat to my neighbors, friends, and relatives

-The political policies put forward by Scott Robbins and Amelia Richmond are a threat to my community and the future of the city of South Lake Tahoe

We urge all our friends and community members to not support the Vacancy Tax.

- Brett Richardson, a full time resident of the Bijou Neighborhood