Commentary: Laguna does not survive on tourists

I agree with David Hansen’s point in his May 15 column, “How many people visit city? Guess,” that we don’t know and should know how many tourists visit the city.

However, I disagree with another point he made “…the numbers are important to Laguna, which survives on tourists.”

Not since the days when the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker all lived and worked in Laguna has “Laguna survived on tourists.”

But let me take these points separately.

Hansen is correct — we are missing fundamental information and it’s tough to solve a problem without having basic information about it.

We don’t know how many visitors we really have, or what they are doing here, or when they are coming, or what they are spending. We also don’t know what our traffic is doing. Where is it from? Where is it going?

Most people in Laguna would probably say our biggest problems are traffic, parking and congestion. But from the city’s proposed 2015-2016 budget, we expect to collect more than $2 million from the Business Improvement District, of which the city will then channel more than $1 million to the Laguna Beach Visitors Bureau to encourage even more people to come to Laguna, many of whom will likely be “day-trippers.”

And this takes me to the second point: Laguna is not surviving on these tourists. It’s the other way around. The people who live here are subsidizing the tourists.

The proposed 2015-2016 city budget projects a total budget revenue of $81.9 million. However, my best guess is that slightly less than $20 million of that is attributable to visitors.

There are three items on the city budget that are largely paid by tourists: Transient Occupancy Tax, Sales Tax, and Parking Lot and Meter Revenue.

Tourists probably pay all of the Transient Occupancy Tax, which is projected to be $10.3 million. Total Sales Tax collections are projected to be $5.4 million, but according to a 2012 Chamber of Commerce survey, an average of about 40% of Laguna business customers are from Laguna Beach. If sales tax receipts are in proportion to the origin of the customer, sales tax attributable to tourists would be about $3.3 million.

Total Parking Lot and Meter Revenue is projected to be $5.9 million, but not every car belonging to a Laguna resident has a parking sticker, so not all revenue from parking is from visitors. Still, attributing 100% of Transient Occupancy Tax, 100% of Parking Lot and Meter revenue and 61.75% of Sales tax to tourists means that of the total budget of $81.9 million, only about $19.6 million, or 24%, is attributable to tourists.

I’d hardly call that “surviving on tourists.”

If by “surviving on tourists” you mean that everyone living in Laguna works for or owns a bar, restaurant, or shop catering to visitors — that’s not correct.

From census numbers, out of our population of 22,788, 11,993 hold jobs. Of those, 3,797 work inside the city — that includes 1,497 who work at home.

If every one of the 3,797 who live and work in Laguna were dependent on visitors for their livelihood, it would still be a stretch to say that we “survive on tourists.”

I don’t believe the sales tax paid by tourists to the city comes close to covering the costs of city services required by the high number of visitors.

The next step would be to determine the costs to the city that come as a result of tourists.

This is why I say that the residents are subsidizing the tourists. And, if you are wondering why there is no money in the city budget for some of the things the residents would like to see, perhaps that’s why.

JOHN THOMAS is a Laguna Beach resident.