It’s no secret, Incline Village is a huge tourist destination, yet local homeowners bear much of the expense to operate and maintain our many former “community amenities” that are now tourist attractions.

Why does this unfair burden fall on us? Because Washoe County approved a GID, a public agency, and in 1965 IVGID was given the power of public recreation, putting local owners on the hook. So even though many owners only live here part of the year (and cannot vote here), and many just moved here for the bounty of “natural” recreational amenities that require minimal funding/equipment (hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking, cross-county skiing, etc.) all are burdened not just with supporting capital-intensive facilities, but also subsidizing mismanaged operations.

Back in 1965 Harold Tiller, one of the early IVGID Trustees, was onto something when he assured the economic feasibility of the District’s acquisition of the beaches: “All of the recreational facilities[1] except the park properties (including the two beaches) are, or will be, privately owned and operated. The assessed value of Incline Village General Improvement District, together with its expected growth, will readily finance the acquisition and operation of the two beaches.” He recognized that it would not be economically feasible for IVGID to support all these amenities. Property taxes, not facility fees, were supposed to cover the cost of acquiring and maintaining the beaches. But that was before IVGID invented its facility fee a few years later.

The board-approved so-called facility “fees” circumvented the need for the usual method of financing public projects – taxes assessed to re-pay voter-approved bonds. They enabled the District to acquire the beaches, the golf courses, the ski area, build the rec center, and as we have seen, run these amenities at a loss with little or no internal controls. 

Our GID, like most governments, is horribly inept at running business-like operations. Many privately operated Tahoe basin golf courses, ski areas, bars and restaurants do survive; some actually make a return on investment.

For years IVGID has not funded positions necessary to effectively manage a District with so many diverse business units, like a professional buyer, a contracts manager, an internal auditor nor has it successfully implemented systems to track finance, food and beverage, retail, and maintenance operations.  The fairly well run ski area has huge capital expenses looming (Snowflake Lodge, Ski Way repaving, replacement of aging ski lifts) that will exceed the “profit” it has used to prop up the other money losing venues. IVGID never advised Trustees to restrict funds for replacing its aging infrastructure.

Any mention of outsourcing or relinquishing any of IVGID’s recreational venues brings sharp criticism. Yet clearly the cost of operating and maintaining/replacing these aging amenities will be much greater than ever before. At a time when families are struggling just to meet inflated costs for food, housing and insurance. it would be unconscionable to increase mandatory fees just to subsidize golf, tennis and other glorified IVGID venues that are now so filled with tourists many of the locals avoid them.

Ask Trustee candidates how they will meet the enormous increases in costs. Increasing facility fees and the “portfolio” approach will do nothing to address the “loose internal control culture”[2]. These practices only encourage reckless spending and a lack of accountability. Why bother monitoring expenses if some other department will make up the loss?  IVGID continuously promotes policies favoring their ardent supporters (like golf clubs whose members, many non-residents, still receive the bulk of prime tee times, realtors who salivate over the marketing draw of “community amenities” and staff who get to use almost all this stuff for free).

IVGID has had more than half a century to become adept at operating these venues with proper internal controls, and responsible financial management, They failed miserably, requiring ever-growing subsidies, while many similar private operations succeeded.

IVGID gets roughly $4M in taxes to support our parks and basic recreational needs. It’s time for Trustees to make the tough decisions to reduce, if not eliminate, subsidies for those amenities better suited to be privately owned and/or operated.

[1] there will be two great golf courses; the finest tennis facilities in the world in the Tahoe Racquet Club; & major ski development; riding stables with event areas for activities such as trails to the very crest of the mountains and to remote places for evening and all-night cookouts, both by horse back and wagon hay rides; gaming and related night club entertainment and a cultural center with related youth programs.

[2] P.21 https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/2024-0828_BOT_Agenda_Packet.pdf