While the Town of Mammoth Lakes struggles over a kind of surgical reduction of its government structure, the city of most of Mammoth’s customers – Los Angeles – prepares four possible tax hike measures for the March ballot.
After Town of Mammoth officials called for severe cuts in the police department and other employee and facility cuts, the discussion of new taxes came up. At the last Town Council meeting officials heard from some citizens that they want a higher sales tax, lift ticket tax and use of already approved tax money to help hold together the town’s services.
Judging from news in the Los Angeles Times, southland skiers and visitors would likely not even blink at higher taxes in Mammoth. If the March tax hike passes, LA’s sales tax would go up from 8.75% to 9.25%. Mammoth’s current sales tax stands at 7.75%.
On this week’s ballot, Los Angelenos will vote on a county sales tax to pay for public transit. In March, LA may also vote for a higher property tax, higher levies on parking lots and increased taxes on real estate sales. LA officials want to avoid more cuts in parks, police, fire and other services. Sounds like a familiar scenario.
At Wednesday night’s Mammoth Town Council meeting, officials will hold a workshop with the Planning Commission to talk about incentive zoning and transient rentals in single family zones. This idea would raise money for the Town General Fund which is 60% funded by TOT.
Wednesday’s Council meeting also includes as the last item more discussion about Town re-structuring to pay off its debts. The item also includes responses to questions and results of the online survey. Some Council deliberations will take place at this meeting with a vote on restructuring currently scheduled for December 5th. Officials will likely discuss cuts, new and old taxes. The regular meeting starts at 6pm in Suite Z.
I propose a 5 cent “tax” on all alcoholic beverages sold in the Town of Mammoth and have the fund pay down the debt owed by the Town, allow for the MLPD to remain fully staffed and put at least some of the burden on the tourist “community” instead of… Read more »
Sooooo- 5 x 5 cents is 30 cents? and how long does it take with this math to get to 2 million dollars? TMR should run for town council. (or– maybe with 5 drinks we could have more return from DUI)
I like it TMR…I wonder what 5 cents a drink would add up to in the course of a year??? any guesses anyone? I swear, one happy hour at Slocums they must sell at least 200 drinks, and that’s just the bar area, not the restaurant part.
sierragrl– let’s be really generous and guess we serve not 200 drinks but instead, 20000 (twenty thousand) . At 5 cents a drink that is $1000 (one thousand) if we did that 365 days a year, we’re still short $1,635,000 of covering the $2,000,000. Do you have a plan “B”… Read more »
Okay, 5×5 is in fact 25, and my math was without a drink. Still, collecting $1, 635,000 in a year, as Roger suggests may not solve the entire problem, but it is more than we have now, right? The Town came out of the of the shoot framing the argument… Read more »
TMR– I did not suggest we could collect $1,635,000 in a year. Even with fantasy math, that was the amount still missing. I was being satirical about the 5 drink fantasy in the first place. With a vastly reduced police force, we would be unable to even benefit from an… Read more »
Ski resorts cater to the richest in our society.
Many of those rich from Los Angeles can afford second and third homes here.
Tax the @%*#) out of them.
They can afford it.
WOW…10 to 1 . We must have some rich people in our midst.
Big Rick, Doubtful we have “rich people in our midst” (those who don’t believe in taxing those who have all the money today). Just a bunch of people who have been taught to believe the rich are their Lords and Masters. This has been part of the GOP platform for… Read more »
WOW…21 to 2 . OUCH times 2!
And so what are you going to do when that source goes dry?
+1 for a combo approach of tax increases aimed at visitors (who won’t notice it) and cuts across the board to all city departments. I don’t want 7 cops laid off.
Tax hikes cure government profligacy in the same way that giving a drunk a bottle of whiskey cures his alcoholism. A state whose government is as economically illiterate as that of California, spending billions on bullet trains to nowhere that no one ever will ride, cannot be trusted with more… Read more »
Regarding the proposal to allow nightly rentals in single family homes and the assumption that it will raise revenue – Let’s for a moment, ignore the fact that permitting nightly rentals in single family neighborhoods will severely impact those neighborhoods and residents in a negative manner. Instead, let’s look at… Read more »
Amen !!!
Anyone who votes for more taxes of any kind except those on the business community, eg lift ticket surcharge, is an idiot. So figure there’s going to be tax increases of some kind.
Ken, Lift ticket surcharge is not a tax on the business community, it is a tax on people whi ski and board.