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Who really foots tax bill

Don Rogers

In a word, here’s our reaction to columnist Kaye Ferry’s assertion that a Vail conference center would cost each man, woman and child in town $24,000: Huh?Here’s another word: Nonsense. This is just the sort of irrational argument that does not add up if you think about it for all of two seconds. The conference center and it’s annual shortfall would be funded by 2.2-3.0 percent lodging tax and 0.5 sales tax. That likely annual deficit, at least in the first handful of years of operation, is about $1 million. Less than “art” for Seibert Circle or heating village streets. Some of the town’s regular revenue comes from property tax and the bulk of it comes from sales tax. Of all the properties in Vail, over 70 percent are owned by people who do not live full time in Vail. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of business patrons do not live in that community. These are the good folks who provide the lion’s share of funding for the town government. Um, duh.Of the commerical properties, many are hotels. The lodging association overwhelmingly supports building the conference center. The hotel properties are also owned by the hotels. So if something went wrong, as Ferry seems so sure will happen, they would be hurt a lot more than Ferry’s fiction about every man, woman and child. But to turn Ferry’s assertion on its head, the center is projected to generate business to the tune of 30 times that $1 million annual investment. How’s that add up for every man, woman and child? D.R.Vail, Colorado


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