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Michael Rogers My Turn: Another federal bailout, but this one directly hurts me

So, Supervisor Ted Owens please explain this one to me. The hotel industry is going through a rough time. We are deeply discounting our rooms, sometimes just to keep our staff busy. We cannot get financing because the banks are afraid we are all going to start falling like dominoes and#8212; they say commercial real estate is the next and#8220;shoe to drop.and#8221;

The new hotels already added in Truckee have not increased bed tax dollars as projected. We face increased competition from second homes being run like hotels to pay the mortgage (here is an idea, want to increase the Bed Tax? Have the county tax collector troll craigslist.com and VRBO.com so that these micro hotels have to compete with us dollar for dollar). To top it off, a big hotel project in Stockton was recently halted before even being finished. The hotel projects on the boards in Truckee were put on hold because these corporations thought it was not a good time to be building new hotels. The Chateau project in South Lake Tahoe is a federally funded unfinished and#8220;holeand#8221; in the ground.

And, in spite of all of that, you have given the Hotel Avery project $5 million of federal loan guarantees, the entire pot available to us, to bail out a developer that just warned of possibly shutting down Homewood Ski Resort because of financial danger? What underwriting experience do you have that JMA Ventures banksand#8217; do not? And why are my tax dollars being used to try and put me out of business?



I have asked repeatedly for help only to be ignored or told all the reasons I donand#8217;t qualify for financial support. Wouldnand#8217;t that money be more secure and have greater benefit if it was used broadly to support the small business community instead of the large, well-connected few? You will say that it is not allowed within the law, but maybe you and your friend Tom McClintock should be earning your wage by making that happen.

How much longer do you and your conservative friends think we will allow this fleecing of the public treasury? Bail us out, not your connected friends.



Michael Rogers is managing partner of Shinneyboo Creek Cabin Resort in mid-Nevada County.


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