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Sunday, June 16, 2024

Cristi Creegan talks w Ari Zucker re Vacancy Tax, watch VIDEO here with transcript

"Every single person who lives in South Lake Tahoe will have to file this form not just second homeowners not just renters everyone." "To some filling out a form is an violation of privacy." Hear SLT City Councilmember Cristi Creegan say those and other things that I think are debatable in this interview conducted by Ari Zucker. [Transcript w time codes below]

 

Below is the transcript, AI generated [so imperfect] :

Music]

0:09

AZ:  what Adventures make you feel most alive

adventure comes in all forms we are grateful to all of you who live and share the spirit of adventure together let's Elevate the world okay here we go Hello everybody

welcome back to another amazing episode of everything from A to Z I am your host Ari Zucker and today I have with me Cristi Creegan who is uh one of our city council members and we wanted to talk about uh something very important that I know lays very heavy on a lot of our hearts here in South Lake Tahoe which is the vacancy tax so what we wanted to do is to better inform everyone so we can make great decisions when it comes time for voting since the vacancy tax is onthe ballot so Christy hi welcome hithe Line so this is why we're here today….

1:24

so um I think first and foremost for a lot of people the vacancy tax sounds so scary to a certain degrees you know if I were just to ask you what is exactly the vacancy tax and why is it on the ballot that's a great place to start

 

CC: so I'll start by saying that the vacancy tax itis is a Citizens initiative I'm a city council member it is not something that's being put forth by the city in fact our city council considered advancing it to the ballot ourselves and voted not to uh last fall um because we didn't feel like it was the right direction to go for our community

1:59

however a group of citizens got enough signatures to put it on the ballot because we have that process in California. so having said that what what this vacancy tax does is it taxes it taxes residences in which people are not present for more than 183 days so something really important about this that one of the things that we're going to do today is try and make things really clear because there is a lot of misinformation and a lot of is- every single person who lives in South Lake Tahoe will have to file this form not just second homeowners not just renters everyone. so we both live here and full

2:45

time and we will both have to fill out this form and submit it to the city to prove that we have been here if we cannot prove that we have been here for that amount of time Year One you will pay $3,000 tax in year two the tax is raised to$6,000 and then going forward it's also increased by the CPI the Consumer Price Index which is a variable number um so that is the way that the group that wrote the vacancy tax has structured it.

AZ: so if you're here if you're gone one and this has been a question too if you're gone say you're um you know live half time half the time in Florida and half the time here you're retired you've worked really hard to get your home uh and now you come in at 180 days are you still going to pay that tax

 

CC:  yeah the T yes the the way the proponents wrote the vacancy tax um ordinance is there are a few exceptions I think it's for I don't know exactly what they are um but for the most part if you cannot prove that you've been here the correct amount of time you will be paying the tax

 

AZ: interesting so as I and and I've been reading along as well and some of the things that come up on the I'd like to say that I lie in the middle a little bit but I'm a full-time  resident um and I should actually backtrack a little bit and say the fact

4:24

that we also have to fill out and prove because we're full-time residents here and which means everybody I would imagine whoever wrote this up has to do too um Probably sounds

CC: oh it's easy just fill it out it's not a big deal but to some it feels like a violation of privacy and that's I've heard that a lot too um and the form is not developed yet what it will look like so we can't speak to that um I think that the the invasion of privacy piece I've definitely heard a lot because it's it's really no one else's business where you go and where you are

[City of Angels Blog stops making transcript more readable here, as it's a lot of work and no one is paying me, but you can continue to read it raw: ) (You can click a few bucks to me through PayPal top left if you'd like to support CofA Blog.)

5:00

for I just want to give a short example

5:02

which is my neighbor is 84 and she lives

5:05

Alone um and for the past two years

5:07

she's been spending an increasing amount

5:09

of time with her kids who live away and

5:13

it breaks my heart to think that she

5:14

would have to make those decisions about

5:17

where to be in the winter because she

5:19

has a hard time shoveling now based on

5:22

this rather than on her own personal

5:24

needs so every time I think about this

5:26

vacancy tax I think of her absolutely

5:29

and and I also you know when you think

5:32

about the second time owners you've got

5:34

those who just barely make money to have

5:37

their second home and then you have

5:39

those that probably have an

5:40

extraordinary amount of money and those

5:42

big homes sit what's interesting is okay

5:45

so so there's around 7,000 homes that

5:48

are vacant I think that's a an

5:50

interesting word to use um because to me

5:53

vacant means somebody doesn't own it or

5:56

the bank Own It owns it or it's been

5:57

sitting around doing nothing you know um

6:00

but it is someone's home their things

6:01

are in it um so when they do come to

6:04

visit everything's there right that's

6:06

why you have a second home but to and I

6:09

think the idea is to rent to uh

6:13

employees here which I I more than

6:16

anything appreciate the everyone who

6:19

comes to work here to make a living to

6:21

live here um the bartenders to the

6:24

janitors at my daughter's school here

6:27

and I I do appreciate it but I I'm

6:29

trying to understand how someone with a

6:32

very large home will rent out to someone

6:35

who you know who works here so they're

6:38

going to have to drop the price down and

6:40

this is just my logic please correct me

6:41

if I'm wrong they're gonna have to drop

6:43

the price down to rent it out uh and

6:46

then there's the possibility of because

6:48

it's such a thing now is squatters so

6:50

you never know what nobody wants to rent

6:53

right now because nobody we're so

6:55

uncertain about unfortunately one or two

6:59

or a small group of people have made it

7:01

tough for everybody right uh so what so

7:04

how is that logic work out that is a

7:07

great question and I think that the the

7:09

the place that I would start by

7:10

answering that is to say

7:13

that every

7:16

single um every single homeowner has a

7:18

different situation so it's not fair to

7:20

characterize there's all these big

7:22

mansions sitting around the people live

7:23

in the Bay Area and they can pay for it

7:25

nor is it correct to say these are all

7:27

fourth generation you know people who

7:29

struggled all their lives and they

7:31

finally were able to buy the second home

7:33

it's just all different there's all

7:35

different stories um so you so really

7:38

you can't generalize and what this tax

7:41

proposal is really generalizes everybody

7:45

yeah and that is I take issue with that

7:48

um just right away but I think you're

7:49

right so in that example someone someone

7:53

bought a house here and their mortgage

7:54

is

7:56

$4,000 but and so they want $4,000

8:00

exactly and maybe the house is not even

8:02

worth $44,000 and so we're definitely

8:03

seeing a softening of the market that's

8:05

something that's happening where those

8:06

people are can't get $4,000 yeah so it

8:09

does have to go

8:11

down but in that instance it's still

8:15

going to be more than necessarily people

8:17

can afford yes that's just the truth of

8:21

math so do we think that this is a I

8:24

know we were talking you know before we

8:26

started um filming this podcast

8:30

asked is this a nationwide thing or just

8:32

a South Lake Tahoe thing right yeah

8:35

that's a great question too and I mean

8:37

I've lived here for 27 years and one

8:40

thing that is great about Tahoe is that

8:42

we think we're very unique yes um but in

8:45

this instance as in many other ones as

8:47

we were talking about people want to

8:49

live where it's beautiful people want to

8:51

live in Paris people want to live in

8:53

Barcelona people want to live in Bale so

8:55

those places are more impacted um and I

8:58

want to say that um and you referred to

9:00

it with who who these affordable housing

9:03

goals efforts are to benefit and when

9:07

when our Council last year first started

9:10

talking about all of the affordable

9:12

housing things that that we are doing it

9:14

was really to promote a Vibrant

9:17

Community that had people at all levels

9:20

in it people just starting out people

9:23

who are at you know a mid level in their

9:25

career people who are at a high level

9:27

people who are retired it so we really

9:29

wanted to make space for people who

9:32

weren't earning as much and so that

9:35

effort toward a Vibrant Community is the

9:38

ultimate goal and in order to do that

9:40

you have to have a spectrum of housing

9:42

that suits everyone absolutely so that

9:45

leads me to there are options here and

9:48

I'm not sure if if people who do work

9:52

here who do come in to work or want to

9:53

live in like Tahoe and need more

9:55

affordable housing there are some

9:57

options right so where are some of those

10:00

options because I know we were as we

10:02

were you know um talking earlier it's it

10:05

I I go wow I didn't know those were

10:07

available I didn't know I could you know

10:09

sign up for that and and where can

10:11

someone find out where where they can

10:14

find affordable housing here that's such

10:15

a good question because the city has a

10:18

very robust housing department and they

10:22

keep a list of all of the affordable

10:25

units in the community they keep a

10:27

waiting list that people can get on to

10:29

get openings in those um the most

10:32

impacted waiting list is for seniors and

10:34

those with disabilities those have the

10:37

longest waiting lists and so there's I

10:39

don't know how many units there are that

10:41

are existing but coming up there's more

10:43

than 500 housing units that are going to

10:46

come online in the next five years and

10:48

you probably know if you ever drive

10:51

through the Y on the Left Right by South

10:54

Lake Brewing yes you will have seen the

10:55

sugarpine village which is 268 units and

10:58

the first people are be moving in this

11:00

fall we feel really proud of those

11:03

because they're really nice they have

11:05

air conditioning for which I we don't

11:07

have we don't have a that's in our

11:11

they're really nice and so I think

11:12

something else because a lot of people

11:14

talk about why didn't we just have Motel

11:16

6 be affordable housing why don't we

11:18

just you know do some renovation to some

11:20

existing crummy motels and it's because

11:22

we want people to have nice housing we

11:24

want people to have respectful housing

11:26

we want you to be able to come to South

11:28

Lake Tahoe and get a an entry-level job

11:31

and live somewhere nice we don't want

11:33

you to have to live somewhere crummy no

11:35

one wants that I don't want to live

11:36

somewhere crummy yeah so that's been

11:39

another goal that our Council and our

11:41

housing department have really worked on

11:43

so the housing manager's name is Jessica

11:45

wackenhut lelly she is lovely you can

11:48

email you can go on the city website you

11:49

can find her email address the city

11:51

staff is very accessible and they will

11:54

help

11:55

you that is amazing to me I feel like

11:58

somehow

12:00

you know I'm I'm on the PTA and I'm as

12:02

I'm was my first year being on the PTA

12:05

and my daughter I we did have the option

12:07

of being part of a charter school when

12:09

we were living in Southern California

12:10

which is really great because the

12:11

parents were involved there was just so

12:13

much more involvement I really feel like

12:15

here's the what I would say the good

12:17

thing out of this is out of the vacancy

12:21

tax is it woke people up it woke people

12:24

up to do more and so I feel like as now

12:28

a new member of the city is to say well

12:31

what can we do how do we how do we do

12:33

more or how do we allow people to

12:36

recognize what's happening and so that's

12:37

what I found out with the PTA is we're

12:39

trying to fundraise is when I just don't

12:41

think that the parents really knew we're

12:43

not out in the front what we used to do

12:44

with the charter schools as we' sit

12:46

right out in the front and say hey we're

12:48

having this fundraiser at Al works this

12:49

weekend come on down and d and and it

12:52

makes families realize that there's so

12:54

much happening at the school but if

12:56

there's a small staff because of course

12:58

I do know that I think it was it 36% of

13:01

students have left in the last 20

13:04

something years um understandable uh

13:07

that you know obviously we want that

13:09

growth we want those students in those

13:11

seats so you know I'm I'm the full

13:14

cheerleader I even came up with a song

13:15

in PTA they were laughing at me PTA P

13:19

PTA and so I think if we have more

13:22

cheerleaders about really understanding

13:25

where we can find affordable housing and

13:28

maybe we do have those um you know part

13:31

of those festivals or at the farmers

13:32

market we have people I don't know if we

13:34

want to volunteer or not I'll be at the

13:35

farmers markets I can help with that as

13:37

well at my own uh at my own tent and and

13:41

say hey look these are some options that

13:43

we could if you are someone who wants to

13:44

live here talking with locals and I'm

13:47

sure you do as well is and asking them

13:50

you know what's it like right now the

13:52

whole city at the moment I think like I

13:54

said the whole the whole nation is sort

13:57

of suffering is what can we do to help

14:00

not only our residents but continue

14:02

people to want to come visit here

14:04

because we that's we're a destination CI

14:08

so what do we do to create that that's a

14:11

really good question and I I love that

14:13

you're on PTA that's a

14:15

good

14:17

T our youth is our future leaders and I

14:20

agree with that completely I think

14:23

that at the city in particular we are

14:26

not as good as we could be about talking

14:28

about our

14:30

successes um that's something that we

14:32

talk about a lot is how to really get

14:35

the word out there about everything that

14:37

we're doing and so the city is really

14:38

active on social media and you know we

14:41

have newsletter and all those things but

14:42

there's always more to do in that area

14:46

to remind people that we are one

14:48

Community we don't promote divisiveness

14:52

and something that so I went last night

14:55

as I mentioned to the town hall to

14:57

understand what people were saying about

14:59

vacancy tax and one of the things that

15:01

came out of that was someone started

15:03

with this is not a blue or red issue

15:06

this is not a renter versus homeowner

15:09

issue it's not a local versus tourist

15:10

issue it's not a young versus old issue

15:13

it's We Are One community and we want to

15:16

focus on

15:18

Solutions and we don't want to be

15:21

divisive or punitive we want to really

15:23

try and think

15:25

about what is best for everyone and

15:27

that's really difficult to do you know

15:31

you with you saying that I think about

15:34

if we put all this energy

15:37

into the line right the divisiveness of

15:40

just this side and this side imagine

15:42

what could happen because we all live

15:44

here so for all living here and I know

15:47

it's hard for everyone to decide

15:49

perfectly that one thing is the right

15:51

way and I do understand that but it's

15:54

it's really you know teaching reteaching

15:58

ourselves

15:59

us included even though we're trying to

16:01

we still have our own personal opinions

16:04

um however what can we do much like and

16:07

I'm just going to use this as an example

16:09

like last year after the 4th of July

16:12

when we had 80,000 pounds of trash how

16:15

many people and how many volunteers came

16:17

out to clean up that trash and it didn't

16:19

matter what you felt about the vacancy

16:22

tax uh our our locals came out to clean

16:26

up that mess and they clean it up in

16:27

what four hours it's all around the lake

16:29

we shouldn't have to do that in the

16:30

first place however I'm just using that

16:33

as this is when it doesn't matter what

16:36

we think all we know is that this Lake

16:38

needs to stay Tahoe Blue and that's what

16:40

we care about and so I think if we can

16:43

look at it in that manner to say who's

16:46

got a great idea and who wants to um

16:48

like all the little all the coalitions

16:50

out there on Facebook going you know

16:51

what what if we all got together and

16:53

said okay we give the knowledge of the

16:55

vacancy tax to say you know is there

16:58

make making suggestions if we if you

17:00

want to vote no on it you vote no on it

17:02

if you want to vote Yes just make sure

17:04

you do your homework I'm always about

17:06

like the facts the best facts that you

17:08

can do is and I know people are reading

17:10

on it and obviously when it comes to the

17:13

ballot that's the best thing that you

17:15

can do is just vote get out and vote and

17:19

then let's also while this is all

17:22

happening and before The Ballot Box

17:23

let's come up with some really really

17:25

great ideas I I don't want to you know

17:27

take up too much of everybody's time on

17:29

the vacancy tax and I think but the the

17:31

bigger purpose here is how can we create

17:33

these great venues together and what is

17:35

the solution and maybe part of that like

17:38

you admitted it's great to admit our

17:40

faults where we can go you know what we

17:41

could do a better job so do we work more

17:44

with network TV I happen to know a

17:46

couple people on the

17:47

news and and you know and through our

17:50

social media this way and to really get

17:52

out there and create hey on this date

17:54

let's do a day where all the locals can

17:57

come out homeowners renters employees

18:00

business owners and we're going to do

18:01

something great at you know maybe the

18:03

farmers Market's the easiest place to do

18:06

these things I'm not sure I'm just you

18:08

know as we're talking I'm just thring

18:10

all ideas all ideas are good ideas and I

18:12

want to say one quick thing which is um

18:15

at our last council meeting we voted to

18:18

ask the city attorney's office using a

18:20

consultant to come back with a report on

18:23

the effects of the bacancy tax should it

18:25

pass okay so that is going that's going

18:28

on right now and so that's going to be

18:30

you know a very unbiased high level um

18:33

information that's specifically intended

18:36

for our constituents so that people can

18:39

really do their homework really

18:41

understand what will happen if this does

18:43

if this does pass or if it doesn't pass

18:46

um and so that report will be presented

18:48

to Council on June 18th and is available

18:50

to the public and we would specifically

18:52

love everyone to read it and then after

18:55

they read it is there something are

18:56

there suggestions or is just knowledge

18:58

it's just knowledge it's it's to help

19:00

inform your vote okay so get out and

19:04

vote is definitely the biggest thing but

19:07

if if people have questions is there a

19:09

place that they can email you at um sure

19:12

I mean yeah I mean you or the council or

19:14

um our City website is good you can find

19:17

my picture and click email Christie and

19:19

it that's what I did to get the

19:20

interview it works it worked look at

19:23

that so yeah so we're all really

19:25

accessible the city manager the City

19:26

attorney the City attorney doesn't

19:28

provide legal advice to anyone but the

19:31

city you know the city council so she

19:33

won't provide legal advice to someone

19:35

who asks um but there's lots of sources

19:37

of information and definitely we want

19:40

our constituency to be well informed

19:42

because this this is well on every issue

19:45

I was say this is really important

19:46

they're all really important so really

19:48

yes doing your homework and um asking

19:50

questions of us we always answer oh you

19:55

do always answer yeah like I said this

19:57

is I I really app appreciate you

19:59

answering me because I felt as I was

20:01

reading on nextdoor.com and you know

20:04

some of the the multiple Facebook pages

20:07

and again talking to locals myself and

20:10

you know just trying to understand both

20:12

sides you know and um of course I can

20:15

always have my own biased opinion but I

20:17

I really want to take other people's

20:19

opinions and say okay we're human beings

20:22

we have blood flowing through our bodies

20:25

the same way and our organs all work the

20:27

same and it's just

20:29

you know it's it's really tough to put

20:31

down your ego Y and to you know find

20:34

better Solutions and that works for both

20:36

sides of this vacancy tax right is both

20:39

sides of this and I do believe that

20:42

there is a a better way than just always

20:45

taxing um but again I'm always open to

20:48

saying well this is you know better

20:50

because of this and again we can take

20:53

our opinions and we can vote um for sure

20:56

and the one thing too as we talked about

20:59

earlier is change is always going to

21:01

happen always it's the one thing we will

21:04

always be able to count on in life

21:05

whether we like it or not is change and

21:08

how much you want to be a part of that

21:09

change so I um I think that again do

21:14

your homework let's let's get together

21:16

and figure out ways to do something more

21:18

and also if I could ask you one little

21:20

question for my viewers too that that um

21:23

you know we work a lot on you know just

21:25

how to kind of stand up for yourself in

21:29

a way that it it's inspiring for just

21:33

especially Women to Women because I have

21:34

a lot of female viewers which is and and

21:36

listeners which is really great what is

21:38

it that you do for yourself to just you

21:42

know bring this confidence and you know

21:44

what you do for the city is a lot and

21:46

you really have to do a lot for a lot of

21:48

people so what is it that you do for

21:50

yourself in the morning or at night do

21:52

you have a something that you do that

21:53

really creates this advos for yourself I

21:55

do that's a great question and I have

21:57

and I will say that I yeah thank you for

21:59

saying that yeah I uh I have really

22:02

loved being on city council it's been

22:05

being able to um represent our community

22:08

in this way and support our community in

22:09

this way has meant so much to me and I'm

22:12

an introvert and so it it sometimes

22:15

takes a lot out of me but I love it so I

22:18

really always do it but the thing that I

22:21

do for myself is I do Crossroad puzzles

22:23

oh amazing I love Crossroad puzzles the

22:26

New York Times Crossroad gets more

22:28

difficult m Monday Tuesday Wednesday

22:29

Wednesday is my Wednesday is my sweet

22:31

spot um Thursday and Friday are more

22:34

difficult the Sunday I have done and

22:35

then during Co I started making them

22:37

they were very bad um it's really hard a

22:40

lot a lot harder than I thought yeah

22:42

yeah the questions are kind of you have

22:44

to yeah and fit it all together fake

22:46

things like UPS um and but I love it and

22:50

it it um just calms me but stimulates my

22:52

brain it just it turned out to be a

22:54

really perfect um activity for me to

22:58

self

22:59

that's really cool because we so many of

23:01

listeners know that I have another

23:03

company called um Aloha life coaching

23:05

but in the our store is TOA it's our our

23:08

Lifestyle brand and our question is that

23:11

we ask a lot of people is how do you TOA

23:13

so that is how you TOA I do okay well

23:17

thank you very much is there anything

23:19

else that you want to add I want to give

23:20

you like the last word just because I

23:21

know there's so much information and we

23:23

probably didn't cover maybe half of it

23:26

but um or maybe we did but if there's

23:28

anything there's defin definitely a lot

23:30

of information and I think that if you

23:32

look you will find it and I would say go

23:35

to primary sources you know don't just

23:38

crowdsource information and look on next

23:40

door really read the vacancy tax

23:41

ordinance several people have posted it

23:44

around it is available from the county

23:46

elections office like there's a lot of

23:49

places to find true information and that

23:52

that would be my suggestion for you to

23:53

be the the best informed you can be to

23:56

make the choice that you are so lucky in

23:59

our democracy to be able to make yes for

24:01

sure so get out and vote this is the

24:03

year to do it everybody thank you thank

24:05

you so much for listening thank you

24:06

Christy for being here I'm excited

24:08

hopefully this isn't the last time yes

24:11

okay we'll have some other topics it'll

24:13

be fun uh appreciate you and kup Tahoe

24:16

for letting us uh host this today so I

24:19

really appreciate your time and we'll

24:22

see you next time on everything from A

24:24

to Z thanks bye bye

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Interviewer Ari Zucker interviewer identifies herself as a Passionate animal lover, Actor, Life Coach, Positivity Advocate! Thank you U.S.A.
❤️😘” Image at left is from her Facebook page

 -Kay Ebeling

 

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