Dear Community Advisory Board,

The Sonoma County of Coalition of Hosts and Friends is writing to oppose the proposed 2% increase in TOT for the city of Santa Rosa. We believe it to be an extremely unwise way to solve the city's budget deficits that you describe.

During this time of strong inflation, the notion that we can raise prices on visiting our city without causing a decrease in people's desire to visit is unstudied and not recommended.

Restaurants, cafés, book stores, wineries, and other small businesses in our city are still working to recover from the harsh business realities of the pandemic. The list of businesses that have closed in our city is far too numerous to mention here.

With a request for revenue increase, we fail to understand our cities vision to welcome an increasing number of visitors over the next 5 years. What is the plan?

Instead, we continue to take measures to signal to visitors that they are not welcome here. Caps on Short Term Rentals, messaging from some city council members, and organizations like Save Our Santa Rosa have made tourists and other visitors feel unwelcome. By limiting the number of affordable places to stay, we have driven people to surrounding cities and parts of the county that are welcoming them with open arms.

Several other cities have TOT that is on par with Santa Rosa. We are not Healdsburg.

Caps and tax increases on Short Term Rentals, are a cap and tax on every small business in our city.  When you make it harder to visit, everyone suffers.

We propose, instead, that the way to help our city's deficit is to have a plan that attracts people to visit in a way that is safe, affordable, environmentally friendly, interesting and fun.

Part of that plan is to lift the ban on Short Term Rentals, and instead create legislation for this segment that focuses on noise, nuisance and safety. We wish to create spaces for families to visit and gather, in a safe and affordable way. This will increase sales revenue in all the businesses that benefit.

We would welcome the opportunity to help create a plan that increases the revenue that we need to operate.

Regards,

Carl R Jaeger - President

Lindsay Darrimon - Vice President

Alex Cvetkov - Secretary

David Wabel -  Treasure

Charles Metz - Board Member

Donna Martinez - Board Member

Dan Gudino - Board Member

Mark Watson - Board Member