To the editor:
I own a house in the South Beach area of Newport. Instead of letting it sit empty I have turned it into a short-term rental in order to generate some income to defray the many costs associated with home ownership, maintain and improve the property, and keep it in good condition so that it’s there in retirement.
You’ve heard many arguments put forward as to why property owners such as us shouldn’t be able to rent out our homes. However, there’s an important point not being put forward loudly enough. In addition to paying Oregon property taxes, we pay a 10.5 percent room tax, resulting in an infusion of roughly $11.7 million directly into Lincoln County coffers. If short-term vacation rentals are wiped from existence, how will that hole be filled in the county’s budget?
I feel the vast majority of Lincoln County taxpayers don’t know how much tax money — taxes they currently don’t have to pay — goes toward county needs that come from short-term rentals.
You’ve heard many arguments made by the narrow-minded about the purported “evils” of short-term rentals. Unfortunately, most of them are long on scare tactics and short on facts.
One example? That the money is leaving the state and that’s a reason to close us down.
Here are some numbers generated from a recent economic impact study on how short-term rentals would affect Lincoln County if they were banned outright.
Short-term rentals generate $11.7 million in revenue to local municipalities. Short-term rentals generate over 3,600 direct jobs for Lincoln County residents. They account for 20 percent of the employment in Lincoln County, generating over $192 million in local wages.
Let that sink in … this isn’t just about people renting their homes, it’s about a huge section of the community being economically devastated if the opponents continue to spread misinformation to the public.
Ninety percent or more of short-term vacation rental owners are decent, rule-following homeowners who are exercising their property rights, and are operating legally, and respectfully toward their neighbors.
What’s frustrating about the “15neighborhoods” group is most of the letters they write and the complaints they parrot are issues they have only heard about in other communities, but they’re writing letters in the present tense, as if it’s happening in their own neighborhoods. Today. In over 90 percent of the cases I can tell you unequivocally it is not.
The solution is to regulate, not eliminate, which all entities involved are ready to do, except the 15neighborhoods group. Short-term rental owners and their management companies, county officials, the licensing and sheriffs department all welcome increased regulation and constructive suggestions on how to do so.
We have cameras outside our property and monitor our occupancy. This is just one of the many examples of things that owners are willing to do in order to operate safely, legally, and compassionately toward our neighbors.
Every resident, no matter your age or occupation, needs to be concerned because if short-term rentals were to be banned your life as you know it will change in this county.
I say “Regulate don’t eliminate.”
— Kelly Gresh, South Beach
