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Show A-14 M The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, September 3-6, 2016 OUNTAIN TOWN NEWS A Roundup of News from Other Western Ski Resort Communities By ALLEN BEST Mountain Town News Z D D Featuring SMART SHADES - the only motorized window covering technology on the market that combines motorized sunshades with motorized drapery! Exclusively at Park City Blind. Visit our showroom or schedule a FREE in-home consultation today! The t rk City ,U Pa IN PRINT ONLINE MOBILE PARK RECORD PAR 649-9014 SERVING SUMMIT COUNTY SINCE 1880 photo by Pat McDowell Skier - Adolph Imboden from park record circa 1977 Wealth chasm continues to widen in Jackson Hole JACKSON, Wyo. – Jackson Hole is noted for the sky-piercing Teton Range. But it also has a Grand Canyon-like gap between the ultra-wealthy and everybody else. The Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., recently ranked Teton County as having the most unequal incomes in the United States. The report found that the average income of the top 1 percent was 213 times the average income of the bottom 99 percent of households. Local economist Jonathan Schechter earlier this year painted more detail in this picture. He cited Internal Revenue Service data that shows Teton County is the wealthiest in the United States based on per capita income. In 2014, the most recent year available, per capita income was $194,585. Schechter finds this chasm: 9 percent of people accounted for 89 percent of all income in Jackson Hole. Flipped on its head, this means 91 percent of people account for just 11 percent of wealth. That disparity is the most pronounced in the United States. The Jackson Hole News&Guide observes that the wealth disparity is manifested particularly in housing. The last time a family earning the median income of Teton County could afford a median-priced home was in the mid-1980s. County planners estimate that a family now must make nearly three times the median income to be able to afford a medianpriced home. Earlier this summer, the median price of homes listed for sale was $2.5 million. Only seven single-family houses were listed for under $750,000, according to the Jackson Hole Report issued by David Viehman, a real estate agent. Aspen and Pitkin County have the fourth-greatest inequality in the nation. There, 9 percent of the population have 73 percent of the wealth. Schechter makes the argument that Wyoming’s tax laws also encourage Jackson Hole’s imbalance. Yes, the Tetons are dramatic, he seems to say, but there are some bottom-line reasons why big money is lofting into Jackson Hole. Wyoming has no income tax. Wyoming residents can also create dynasty trusts to shield property from federal estate taxes for up to 1,000 years. The state also has no real-estate transfer tax, no estate tax, no tax on out-ofstate retirement income. Real estate agents have taken to trumpeting the tax advantages of real estate investment in Jackson Hole. In July, Sotheby’s International Realty ran an advertisement headlined “Wild, wonderful Wyoming—the tax friendly state.” News&Guide reporter Benjamin Graham’s story also delved into what he called artificial incentives that further encourage wealthy people to buy homes in Teton County. One is the local airport, which has a strong link for easy travel to the nation’s metropolitan areas. But then there’s this: spraying of mosquitoes, which makes summers far more pleasant. Can Jackson Hole tweak regulations to create a better balance? One possibility is to require more affordable housing be built along with new residential development. The current rate is 25 percent. The regulation comes into play with the construction of homes larger than 2,500 square feet or a new subdivision. “Whether the community is interested in looking at tweaking regulations and other artificial incentives remains to be seen, but the fact remains that residents have some control and ability to react to the phenomenon of wealthy people relocating here.” What explains the homeless campers? NEDERLAND, Colo. – Earlier this summer, a fire erupted in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains northwest of Denver, near the small town of Nederland. Nearby is a ski area, Eldora, and up a road toward the Continental Divide is a one-time recording studio called Caribou where Elton John, Michael Jackson, and dozens of other musicians cut records. Rocky Mountain National Park is about 45 miles away along the Peak to Peak Highway. The fire had spread from a campfire created by two men from Alabama. It went on to burn 600 acres, destroying eight homes. But the story the New York Times investigated was not one of forest fires. Rather, it’s about homeless people camping in forests. There seems to be a lot of them around Nederland and other places, too. The local fire chief, Rick Dirr, said his volunteer firefighters no longer answer nighttime calls in the forest without a policeman or sheriff’s deputy as backup. He told the Times he has faced down one camper who carried a butcher knife and searched the woods for another man who had attacked his girlfriend. There was also a boy who swallowed a baggie of heroine. There have been scattered reports – from around Crested Butte, near Breckenridge, and elsewhere – of an upsurge in the number of people camping illegally. The Times found no hard evidence to document the surge. The best was a 2015 survey of U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers. About half seemed to think the number of long-term campers was on the rise. Lee Cerveny, one of the researchers who conducted the survey, said it was unclear how many people might be living on public lands at any give time. “What is happening, and why are we seeing more people living in the forests?” she said. “We don’t know yet.” Please see Mountain, A-16 The InTermounTaIn advanTage... Them One Underwriter + One Lender + Strict rULeS = One Loan Product Option us MULtiPLe UnderwriterS + MULtiPLe LenderS + cUStOMized PackageS = Many Loan Product Options Intermountain Mortgage has longstanding relationships with multiple local and national lending sources and the ability to find the best loan for each scenario. Options are good. Get all the latest Park Record updates. |