User Fee Back on the Table

Tahoe Daily Tribune

July 30, 1997
By Sally J. Taylor
Tribune Staff Writer

Discussions have again fired up regarding Tahoe Basin user fees following the Presidential Forum on Lake Tahoe. This time around, however, the controversial issue has not generated a heated battle.

With $50 million in federal funds for environmental improvements apparently on the way, more people seem willing to discuss basin user fees as the best way to raise local funds to leverage state and federal money or generate matching funds for various grants.

According to a Tahoe Regional Planning Agency report on environmental thresholds, $906.8 million would be needed to complete a 10-year plan of environmental improvements.

"It's clear through the workshops and forum that we need to be looking at ways to generate revenue locally," said City Manager Kerry Miller, who has been through many previous discussions on the subject. "Some kind of user fee appears to be one of those options."

California Rep. Vic Fazio was one of several forum panelists who expressed the need for a serious look at a basin user fee as a funding source to expand and improve public transportation.

"If we want to build a transportation system, we're going to have to find funding that's difficult to find even in urban areas," he said. "It's now time (for a basin user fee) ... it's time for everybody to pay."

Currently, no specific plan has been released and just what form the user fee would take and how it would be administered remains uncertain. What is certain is that opposition may not be as widespread or as quick to stand up as in the past.

"Ten years ago, you'd have been run out of town (for suggesting a basin user fee)," said South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Duane Wallace. "It seems headed for discussion."

"It will get a real good hearing at the chamber level," he said, uncertain what position the chamber board of directors might ultimately take.

How far a basin user fee gets is dependent on the resolution of a number of issues, chiefly, a prohibition in the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency bistate compact. It reads, "you will not charge for entry into the basin," said Don Kornreich, a retired engineer from Incline Village and eight-year proponent of a basin user fee. Kornreich feels opposition will heat up from the business community and beach users once a specific proposal is on the table, but its success looks better than in the past.

"More and more we're getting people on the TRPA governing board in a position that they may consider advancing this," he said.

Both states would need to ratify a revision to the compact. Because the Nevada Legislature will not be in session until 1999, the earliest a basin user fee could be imposed would be 2000.

"I don't particularly want to see a fee (because of administrative complications)," said Attorney Drake Delanoy, the chairman of the TRPA board of governors. "If we can't find another way to raise funds, that's what has to be done."

Other issues, especially administrative logistics, would also need to be overcome. "How it might be administered or what it would look like, I think is uncertain at this time," Miller said. A major difficulty is to develop a system that collects enough revenue to pay for administration and generate enough "meaningful" revenue.

Public involvement and understanding of the system are needed before people will support it, said Ron Spellecy, the executive director of Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.

"We've got to look at a lot of things," he said. "There needs to be revue. There needs to be discussion. There needs to be a public forum.

"First we need to figure out what we want from a basin user fee and how it will work. Then we can start discussions."