OCR Text |
Show THE ZEPHYRNOVEMBER 1992 welcome. But the county has to address the titiMtfi, whether we truck it to Carbon County, which is one of the proposals, or whether we wish to utilize Thompson's or Green River's. It's something that has to be looked at as far as the funding, but I don't see that dramatic decreases in our taxes, or Grand County giving up those taxes in the near future. If I understand it correctly it would be two years before it can have its own taxing authority anyway. Peter If it was on the ballot next election, and it could be on the municipal ballot Rick: Then it could be as quickly as a year. But in the interim the special service district could be created to take the politics out of it and set it up as an independent thing, with the city and county, or the county only, funding it Jim: Since the county walked away from it is there a surplus building, of that money that was something that the county will end up owning for 15 years. I do have a propensity to ask, why does the county get into these type of businesses, and wcnder if that would be a facility to sell to die park service, crCanyonlands Natural History Association, and put it on the tax rods. That is a real possibility. Once the loan is paid off, we could do that very thing, and make some money back. Rick: I agree with Sam 100 percent on die visitors center because we spend a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort promoting Moab and when they get here they have no idea where to go or how to get there. So I think the visitors center is a good thing. I don't necessarily agree with where it's at, but that's water under the bridge, we have to think of die future instead of the past As far as die golf course, I think Green River's entitled to Grand County's support Everybody speaks of Grand County, and immediately all of us think, myself included, of Moab. Well, there's also a lot of people who live in the county who don't live intide the city limits. Jim: One of side effects of die boom is property values rise. They have risen dramatically in recent years. When values rise, taxes rise, and in other small towns in die west, property taxes have risen so much that people who live there all their lives can't afford to pay diem. What can you do as commissioners to protect those people who might not be able to afford the taxes on a home they've lived in for 30 years? Peter Proposition 13, die same as in California. It's a very efficient way to provide a stabilization of taxes for people that have owned their own homes. The taxes can only go up as inflation goes up. If you sell your home, the new owner pays at die new assessed value. That way, the new people moving into the community who can afford those prices can afford those increased taxes. And people who have lived here for a long time can afford to stay. There are a lot of ways todeal with it. Rick: Because of the industry I'm in, I see a lot of disparity in the housing market in Grand County. It seems we either have none of the low end line and virtually none at the high end, and we have die homes that are being built in both areas. I think its an issue that the commission needs to look into and strongly pursue. We need to address the housing industry and need here. None can say what the property values have risen to. And by no means can we try to mitigate that, but as Peter said, that proposition 13 is an ideal way to do it, for the existing people But it seems to me your singling out, saying, well, we're going to give these guys a special break because they've been here. Where do we set the yearly limit? I've been here 5 years, am I entitled to that? Peter What they did in California is when it was enacted was when it all started. Rick So you'd do it from that point forward? I do see that as being an issue. We have to protect the people who've lived here all there lives, and not force them to move out s they have in some of the other resort towns. Sam: The traditional tiling that one speaks about is in fact if you attract enough businesses to make the tax base pay for it then you're not going to make the property owners pay for it quite as much. I think somewhere along the way we're going to have to look at I think we have a finite valley. Right now, hand and hand tourism attracting new business and attracting retirees is fine. But I think somewhere along die line we're going to have to put it up to town because there's certainly a disparity of opinion about this. And I meetings about don't think all the public has been heard. I think it's an ideal vehicle to have the people speak, because I'm sure there's a great deal of emotion about this, and a good deal of fact We've got Californians moving here to see how it works. We've got people moving here that are perfectly willing to talk about what happened to them back home. So I think we need to look at this. The information is out there. what happens is that which is there intrinsically, Peter When you make something exponentially, goes up in value. Because it's a fixed resource, so you're going to have more people wanting that resource, so its going to go that much higher in value. . This is a tough question. Ride If that issue is addressed, as Sam says, with zoning and with the proper public input as to where they want to have their commercial zones, it entices the commercial area to be developed in the business aspect The businesses should pay the bulk erf dm property tax burden. I've heard a lot anyway, which would relieve the homeowners of that of people say their property tax doubled this year. Well, the property tax wasn't changed, die assessment went up. And dial's something that a lot of people say, why don't you do something about that? We have an elected assessor, it's an elected position in the county and all we do is the budget We don't rally have anything to say about what the assessed value of the property is. Yet those people are just as happy to say, I paid $40,000 for it three years ago and now its worth $70,000. Then on Grand County tax rolls it must be valued at $70,000!, If that' s .. being used for the dump? Sam: That money was pulled out of places that we were warned not to use for die running of the dump. So I see possibly some, but not a significant amount because we were using Class B road monies in the first place. That was one of the issues that we were addressing. With the special service district we could see some savings because that would be their basic focus, rather than just one of many focuses, and it wouldn't be foiling through the cracks. It would be something they would be looking at to do the most economical way. TOURISM Jim: We're in a tourist boom, and we have more people than we ever dreamed would ever be coming here. Is die county dealing with the tourist impacts properly, and are there better ways to use the transient room tax? Peter Sure. I was the one who three years ago, I was sitting with David Knutson being interviewed for the position that Sam got with the governor's appointment He said, what are the three things you'd like to see happen. I said one was set aside a third of the transient room tax. I was thinking of the river comdar and other areas with tourist impacts. The very next commission meeting, the order of the commission was to set aside a third for capital outlay. That money can go to tourism, conventions, recreation, and cultural activities. We could put a roof on Star Hall. There's a lot of ways to take that, and go to the school board, and say, we have a little money, can you through the historic preservation match that? We could ante up that money and get federal matching funds. Renovating Star Hall would be a very good example of dial You could build tennis courts, there are a lot of things. Only a third of that transient room tax can be used, though. The other two thirds must go to administration and promotion. Sam: I think it's rally great that the timing was such that Peter suggested that and the next commission meeting that was done, but it fact that was on the books in many counties that die third be put up. Peter It's been on die books forever, since they wrote the law. Sam: I'm not sure what the cause and effect was, but in fact it was out there as an idea. Dealing with tourism, I think you've seen the impacts with die BLM an the Sandflats Road, where they had to finally dose down certain areas. I've heard die BLM say as an idea, a moral idea, we don't want to dose down anything, and they had to finally in fact dose down areas that were just too much impacted. So the focus of mitigating the results of all of these tourists is becoming a really important issue to all of us. One of the tilings that is going to help, besides the travel council money, is looking at things like 1ST, because more than one body is seeing that the impacts of tourism are serious. It will help us at least along the river corridor. Peter Could you define 1ST? Sam: Interservice Transportation Act and ' it deals with byways, either enhancing the- mi enhancements are not how able to be done, like bikeways or pathways, but also purely safety like issues, pulloffs and bathrooms even. So it's a way of saying, these are scenic byways and we are encouraging you to travel them, but by encouraging them we need to do something as a state and federal body that we don't want diem trashed. Rick: I agree with Sam and Peter. I don't know exactly where that third goes now, but I do know our basic industry in Grand County right now, whether we want to admit it or not, is not extraction type industry but a tourist industry. As we have promoted already, I hope well continue to promote Moab as a place where we want to welcome the tourists. We have to stop and take a look at the impact they have on the infrastructure. I think we need to come up with a solution that helps the full-tiresidents of Grand County not have to pay for all of the infrastructure that the tourists are using Kem What that money is going for in 1993 is die new visitors center and building a golf course in Green River. Are those intelligent ways to spend it? Sam: I think the visitors center is. I think if you reflect on being a visitor in Moab three years ago, and being sent to four or five different locations when perhaps your time is limited, and you have to gp through a number of different hoops to get the information you need. When Moab says come and visit us, we're the most wonderful thing in the world, and then they spend the whole first day trying to get information as to where they need toga It's frustrating. I think that is a step, a first step, a very welcome step, in dealing with the tourism we asked for in a responsible way, by making it available in a package. I don't think there's any problem with that whatsoever. Peter I don't have a problem with the visitors center or the golf course. Both are necessary to take care of tourists when they come. There's not a whole lot to do in Green River, and if people And the visitors center I think is a want to play a couple of rounds of golf, that's fine. I to know also we It's need an own it as a temporary thing, but its item item. that, necessary PAGE 11 h, 4 no-grow- - ; ever-increasin- g me what it's worth. Kem In just about 30 seconds, tell us what is the biggest problem feeing Grand County? Sam: Disparity of lifestyle, disparity of goals, and mitigation of the rock we've started rolling in tourism. Peter. I think respect by the commission of it s constituents. Time and time again the people have gone to meetings and been totally ignored. When you have that happen, people don't go back to meetings, they learn very quickly that their input isn't appreciated. And it causes anger in the community, it causes initiative petition in the community, it causes a lot of chaos. Rkk: It's economic development, or how we perceive the economic development, for Grand facte, or are County in the future. Whether we're going to, as Sam says, go to a g smart we going to continue to promote die economic through zoning and preplanning. So we don't have to react to a situation, we can already have a plan in place. zero-grow- th well-bein- m -38 So. 100 W. (801) 259-873- 2 or (800) BIKE RENTALS 845-BIK- E & TOURS STAY ON THE TRAIL "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" VOTE TOR THE OPTIONAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT |