To the editor:
I am proud to be living in a place where there are so many people who care about the community and local businesses. We all will continue to do what we can to support our businesses as we have by donating to the funds created by the Presbyterian Church and continuing to make purchases from our local restaurants.
As time moves forward revenues coming into the city of Yachats will be very depleted but the costs to run the city will continue unabated. The debts associated with the water and sewer plants need to be paid, maintenance on those systems, the employee salaries, street and building maintenance all will continue.
While everyone cares and understands that local businesses are struggling, the long term resilience of the city as a whole is paramount. A well thought-out plan moving forward is needed right now, not a knee-jerk reaction forcing the mayor and City Council to make a rash decision that can effect the economic viability of the city.
Taxes collected by the city, food and beverage taxes, and transient lodging tax are earmarked for specific uses. The food and beverage taxes (collected not from the restaurants themselves but from their patrons) goes directly to pay the debt on our water and sewer systems.
A surplus might have been collected previously but the city will not see that moving forward. Those debts are still due. The rates that citizens pay cover only a fraction of the costs to run and maintain those systems and revenues that come in from the tax help offset those costs.
In giving the taxes collected to the restaurants the city would not be giving back money that the restaurants themselves paid into the fund, they would be giving money paid by patrons that the city needs to cover its debts. Basically, the city would be donating much-needed funds to local restaurants.
How transient lodging taxes are used is overseen by the state and creative uses do not always equate with legal uses. Simply transferring taxes that the city has received, once again not from the businesses themselves but from the people who have visited, cannot simply be used however the city deems fit.
As much as most people can agree that the bureaucratic processes around this are difficult, there is a process required. What the city can and should do is work together with other communities and lobby for a change to the rules for transient lodging taxes so that they can, as we move forward, use some of those monies to help businesses get back on their feet as the economy opens back up.
All of us understand that people and businesses are struggling. Some have overextended, some are in a stronger position, and some, like the local workers, have never been able to develop a cushion to make it through times such as these.
The economy is bleeding out like a wound to a main artery. Giving the requested money to local restaurants is like putting a Band-Aid on the severed artery rather than taking a more thoughtful approach to find what will truly slow down and eventually stop the bleeding.
I believe we have strong leadership working diligently to develop a plan to make sure not only the local restaurants but the total local economy can withstand the current situation and hopefully become a more resilient and stronger community in a future that will be new to us all.
I hope that it will become a more balanced, diversified and resilient economy for everyone. Learning from this time and strengthening everyone’s economic circumstances is what the city can and should be working on right now and into the future.
We have the privilege to be living in an amazing place surrounded by incredible beauty. There are small farms, businesses, and entrepreneurs all around us struggling. We all can come together to support each other so that no one is left behind and the foundation, the city itself, can remain strong and resilient well into the future.
— Jacqueline Danos, Yachats