Over the weekend, I was notified by a reader about a social media thread complaining about two perennial topics in Sedona: Traffic delays and the influx of tourists.
As has happened innumerable times before, a resident who had been delayed in traffic complained rightly so about the city’s inaction about traffic and road improvements that cause backups during busy times of the day.
Many of the comments contained technical errors which often appear in such threads and are often perpetuated and exasperated on social media.
- The new tax to fund traffic improvements are not paid 100% by residents. City and Sedona Chamber of Commerce staff estimate tourists fund about 75% of the city’s budget, which includes paying about 75% of the 0.5% sales tax increase City Council passed last year explicitly for Sedona in Motion projects.
- Sedona in Motion is not a group. It is a city document and a traffic plan.
- Sedona has no property tax. There is a property tax on Sedona properties, but that is imposed by the Sedona-Oak Creek School District, Sedona Fire District and either Yavapai or Coconino county, depending on what side of the county line a property is located. Zero goes directly to the city of Sedona.
- Yes, there was a low-water crossing over Oak Creek — hence the reason it’s called Red Rock “Crossing” — but floods in the 1970s and 1993 washed it out and it was never rebuilt despite approval of a permit by Yavapai County officials that has since expired.
As often happens in Sedona’s social media comments, the post then made the leap to criticizing the city’s bed tax contract with the chamber.
While the social media comments rehashed many of the complaints made during the 2018 Sedona City Council election and Home Rule vote, many of those on social media made the argument that they should demand the City Council end the contract and cut all funding.
Yet when the chamber and council held a public meeting this week to discuss the 2019-20 contract, there were zero people who spoke against it. All the residents who spoke at the meeting were in favor, and the council consensus was unanimous.
State law regarding how bed taxes can be spent are clear — any bed taxes imposed after 1994 can only be used for tourism promotion. A portion of Sedona’s bed tax imposed before that date can and does go into the general fund, but the city cannot use the rest for anything but tourism promotion.
Residents do not pay any portion of the bed tax. That tax is only collected by hotels, motels and lodging facilities and is wholly paid for by tourists. The city collects these taxes from tourists — takes a portion imposed before 1994 for the general fund — and must use the rest to promote tourism, so it contracts with the chamber of commerce to use their funds as council directs to bring tourists to Sedona.
Essentially, tourists who come today are paying for marketing to bring other tourists tomorrow and those tourists spend money at local businesses, funding 75% of our city’s services so we don’t need to impose a property tax on our residents.
For specific answers about how Sedona’s bed tax works, residents can read the stories our website or contact the City Manager’s Office or the Chamber of Commerce.
To quote my own editorial offering advice to the graduating Class of 2019: “Armchair complaints do not leave your living room.” The same goes for complaints in a computer chair.
Complaining about political decisions on social media may be popular, but if they don’t carry over into the real world, a few “likes” on Facebook, retweets or upvotes is sound and fury signifying nothing.
Sedona residents have real concerns about the lack of affordable housing, delays in making traffic improvements, shortages of workers, construction projects, new housing and hotel developments and attend these meetings to voice their opinions publicly, but how the city spends bed tax money via the chamber does not appear to be of any real concern, based solely on the lack of bodies in the room.
Council should take that into account when the chamber contract next comes up.
— Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
