LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Transportation challenges, litter, and user impacts are lake-wide issues that some believe Nevada Senate Bill 420 might have one answer for. SB 420 would establish an act that allows local businesses to create business improvement districts, BIDs for short, in the Tahoe area of Nevada.

The establishment of a BID could manifest in an extra 5-10 cents on your $10 beer or slice of pizza, however, that percentage would then go towards community needs as approved by local businesses.

“It’s really taking local control over issues and opportunities that are in front of us,” Andy Chapman says, president and CEO of Travel North Tahoe Nevada, a proponent for the bill and the destination management organization for the Washoe County portion of Lake Tahoe.

It’s an opportunity California communities have had for decades now and something the California/Placer County area of Lake Tahoe utilized in 2021 with the formation of the North Lake Tahoe Tourism Business Improvement District (North Tahoe Community Alliance oversees). That district generates about $6 million each year from tourism related business.

As the senate bill makes its way through the Nevada legislature, it has garnered the support from numerous businesses, including Hyatt Regency, Alibi Ale Works, Bowl Incline, Glasses Wine Bar and Incline Property Management. Residents have also submitted letters of support.

A gap

Although Nevada portions of the Tahoe region receive funds via Transient Occupancy Tax from overnight stays, Chapman says those funds often aren’t enough to manage what realistically needs to get done.

“We can’t expect the state or the federal government or even Washoe County to come and help us, right?” he says. “So it’s really how are we creating this program that pull[s] us up by our own bootstraps and [deals] with the things that we think are important?”

In recent years, Travel North Tahoe Nevada has invested in transportation by paying almost $500,000 annually to TART Connect (free on-demand shuttle service in Truckee and North Tahoe), which is around a quarter of their budget.

“And that’s not sustainable either,” Chapman expresses. Downtown cores are also in need of improvements on a list of other needs that current funding leaves regions and residents wanting.

A BID could be a way to bridge the gap in order to meet these community needs.

How would it work?

The senate bill itself does not create BIDs or new fees. “The main thing on SB420 is really that it’s enabling language, right?” Chapman explains.

If passed, it would allow local businesses interested in forming a BID the ability to do so through a petition process, with public hearings and oversight from the region’s board of county commissioners and legislature. The petition must be signed by a majority of business owners in the proposed district who would pay the fees.

The fees are implemented through a self-assessment of a certain percentage as agreed upon by the businesses. Those business can then either cover or pass the fee on to the customer. The latter is typically what businesses do (that extra 5-10 cents on a $10 beer).

SB 420 outlines specific activities that BIDs could fund, such as the promotion of public events, marketing and economic development, transportation and more generally, “any other service that benefits businesses in the district.”

Chapman explains the broad parameters allow districts flexibility to meet the specific needs in their regions. Businesses in the formed districts would vote on the specific focuses.

For those in the Crystal Bay-Incline Village (Washoe County) region, there are four main focuses for a potential BID as discussed among the community so far: transportation, mitigating user impacts (increase trash collections, receptacles, trail ambassadors), downtown core beautification, and economic vitality. Chapman says they’ve discussed a 0.5-1% assessment, targeting around $2.5 million each year.

But it wouldn’t be all businesses assessing that fee. According to tentative plans for a Crystal Bay-Incline Village BID, businesses that make a certain percentage of their revenue from tourism (lodging, food and beverage, recreation, entertainment) would self-assess these fees by voting and agreeing to these details.

“This is important—that anytime a BID is set up, it is a business-led discussion and effort,” Chapman says. “It allow us to get really self-controlled, self-funded and self-managed revenues to be used for very specific uses that the businesses agree upon.”

Although the bill has yet to pass, proponents for a BID in Crystal Bay-Incline Village have, in addition to their discussions, started feasibility studies for a potential BID in the Washoe-Tahoe area.

Douglas County is not aware of any plans to establish a BID and although the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority supports SB 420, the organization does not have an immediate plan to propose a BID.

Opposition

While pages upon pages of letters have poured into the legislature supporting the bill, some letters are opposed as certain residents feel Tahoe is already overrun with tourism. They fear a BID would promote excessive visitation and development, rather than create infrastructure improvements.

“A lot of what we hear is opposition to anything and everything,” Chapman says, “but no solutions on what do we need to do to fix the problems.”

Chapman points out that tourism volume issues started before the pandemic and increased during it. Yet, there’s been no mechanism that has allowed solutions, something this bill could provide.

Others expressed concerns the assessment would be burdensome on residents. Chapman doesn’t agree, based on the impacts of the solution and the benefits to locals. He notes that a majority of TART Connect ridership is local, which a potential BID could fund.

A figure from 2021 estimated resident contributions to North Tahoe’s Tourism Business Improvement District at $25-$30 annually.

Others say SB420 would establish taxation without representation. “It’s not a tax,” Chapman says. “I mean, the language is very clear on that and the precedents that you see in other areas are very clear as well.”

Although the bill has been met with some criticism, Chapman says, the cost of inaction is just too high.

“It’s up to us to get it done,” he says. “If not us, who? If not now, when?”

If SB 420 passes the legislature and is signed by the Governor, Chapman estimates Crystal Bay-Incline Village could see a business improvement district within 9-12 months.