Letter: South Tahoe’s priorities are upside down

To the community,

Some things are upside down in our city. For instance, the city recently raised the cost of having a telephone with charging an annual fee for 911 service. It doesn’t matter if a person ever dials 911 or not. The fee is really a general tax. If it were a fee, it would be for using the service.

Bill Crawford

And the city has put parking meters around town, which is a real user fee. You pay to park. But the city has been less than truthful about why parking meters. First, the revenue would be for hiring two cops that the city claims are needed. Now it’s said by a council member that the revenue is needed for things like toilet paper for places like Regan Beach. Really, I kid you not.

What’s the point? What’s upside down? Heavenly pays next to nothing for operating the gondola in the city. There’s no tax on ticket sales. Heavenly gets off scot-free.

The city puts the bite on locals and visitors with a fee for parking. And the city takes another bite out of local pocketbooks with a tax on telephones. And the city’s less than honest about where the money will go. But the city will not go for a tax on Heavenly’s operations in the city.

On taxation, locals really are first in the city. The tax base is upside down.

Also, the city is a minimum wage town for too many in the work force. But the city manager and city attorney’s salaries are in the top 5 percent of earners in the nation, which may not be upside down, but it’s whacky in a city with a population of under 25,000. Why? At best it’s excessive. At worst it’s a rip off. Another example the division between the haves and the have nots.

Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe