County Supervisors have reappointed two members of the Los Osos Tourism Advisory Board to new terms.
Curtis Armstrong and Pandora Nash-Karner were reappointed to the Los Osos Area Advisory Board, a subdivision of the County Business Improvement District (CBID), according to a staff report from the Supervisor’s Sept. 12 meeting. Both of their new terms expire July 1, 2025.
The Los Osos Advisory Board is part of the CBID’s network of local advisory boards that decide how to spend a special assessment tax the County charges on all lodging businesses located in the unincorporated areas of SLO County.
The CBID tax is 2% of the cost of a room night ($2 for a $100 room), and half the money goes back to the local advisory boards to spend mainly on promoting and supporting the town’s special events and that community’s lodging businesses. It can also be used for things like community beautification projects.
The other half of the money goes to the CBID’s main advisory board, made up of representatives from each of the unincorporated towns that have lodging industries, the biggest being Cambria, Cayucos, and Templeton.
Los Osos, while it doesn’t have a lot of motel rooms, has many vacation rentals in town that also collect the CBID fees, as well as a 1.5% per room night fee that goes to the County Tourism Marketing District or TMD.
The TMD assessments are paid by all motels, hotels, private campgrounds and RV parks, B&Bs and vacation rentals in SLO County, no matter if the city is incorporated or not. That money is collected and spent by Visit SLO, which promotes the county as a whole.
An example of something Visit SLO supported would be the Ironman Triathlon that took over Morro Bay for a day back in May. Visit SLO also helped bring the Amgen Tour of California cycling race to SLO County, though that event is now kaput.
