By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
Lincoln County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to ask voters to increase lodging taxes in unincorporated parts of the county by 20 percent to provide additional money for park operations and improvements.
If approved by all county voters Nov. 7, the room tax rate for motels and vacation rentals would be 12 percent, an increase of two percentage points from the current 10 percent rate.
County commissioners say their parks are chronically underfunded and that raising the lodging taxes is an appropriate way to help maintain and improve them.
The new rate would be equal to the lodging taxes currently charged by the cities of Newport, Lincoln City and Depoe Bay, but would be higher than the 10 percent tax in Waldport and 9 percent in Yachats. On top of all of those, there is also a 1.5 percent tax charged by the state of Oregon that goes to Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism-promotion agency.
But unlike cities, which can raise lodging taxes without asking voters, Lincoln County has to send the issue to the ballot.
Wednesday’s vote was mostly a formality to OK the idea and to approve language in the ballot measure and title. Commissioners had briefly discussed the idea in two previous meetings but never asked publicly for a fiscal impact or the amount of revenue generated by the proposed increase.
County officials estimated — when asked by YachatsNews — that the increase would raise an additional $568,605 a year with $398,000 of that dedicated to county parks. The remainder — $170,605 – would go into the county’s general fund for any type of use.
There was no public comment on the proposed increase Wednesday and commissioner Claire Hall was the only commissioner to briefly address the idea, saying the county has had a lodging tax for 50 years and had only asked voters three times to increase it.
“We’re not guilty here of going to the well too often,” Hall said. “This is a good investment in local parks.”
$5.5 million this fiscal year
The proposed tax increase would affect just over 500 vacation rentals and approximately 30 hotels, motels, condominium complexes, RV parks and parks, county officials said.
When the last of quarterly payments are made this month, the county expects to collect $5.5 million in lodging taxes on motels and vacation rentals outside of cities in fiscal 2022-23, figures requested by YachatsNews show. The county already dedicates specific portions of that tax revenue to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the county fair, and for economic development.
Without the 2 percentage point increase, the county forecast that its lodging taxes would rise to $5.8 million in fiscal 2023-24, which started July 1.
The county already directs portions of its lodging taxes to specific projects – the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, county fair operations and projects, and for economic development. For the 2023-24 fiscal year the aquarium is expected to receive $435,000, economic development projects $580,000, and the fair $1.2 million, according to a budget worksheet provided to YachatsNews by the county’s finance office.
County parks
Lincoln County has 13 parks covering 333 acres ranging in size from from small boat launch/picnic areas to camping and day-use facilities. Three parks offer overnight camping.
It has an operations manager, Kelly Perry, who has been in the position for a year, and two maintenance workers.
“We just can’t keep up with maintenance,” Perry told YachatsNews. “Just to maintain what we have we have to start investing again.”
According to a budget presentation in May, there were 16,000 overnight stays in the three campgrounds last year and 3,000 boaters used the county-owned river launches.
There is little money in the park’s budget for capital improvements – just $16,500 budgeted this fiscal year. The county wants to develop a fourth campground – Brown Park – on the Siletz River but has no money to do that, Perry said, not even for matching grants.
County commissioners last month decided to use $100,000 from federal pandemic relief funds to create a digital reservation system for the parks and to build internet access at each
Before 2003 local governments that levied a lodging tax were required to use at least 30 percent of it on tourism promotion and activities or to build or operate visitor, convention or conference centers; the other 70 percent could be put into the category of general funds and used for operations of any kind. Oregon lawmakers established a statewide lodging tax in 2003 and at the same time flipped that local formula by requiring that at least 70 percent of any tax increase go to tourist-related activities and 30 percent for general government operations.
Under that 30-70/70-30 formula, Lincoln County currently uses 59 percent on general fund expenses and 41 percent on tourist-related activities.
- Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com
I would point out that the commissioners really don’t need an increase in room tax because they wouldn’t be committing 100% of the increase to the parks. Additionally, the Oregon Coast Aquarium being subsidized by the county isn’t reasonable. The county’s economic development organization getting $580,000 annually seems ridiculous since there is no proven return on investment from that organization. In effect if the county dropped the economic development commission and pushed the funding to the parks then no room tax increase would be required. The commissioners earlier increases to rental licenses to $500 was arbitrary as they are already trying to limit vacation rentals and their administrative cost are over-priced, in my opinion. No matter what the increase per visit increase is, it is just another tax added to a high and already absorbent costs. I support a no vote county wide.
You forget that the county commissioners want to “redevelop” the fairgrounds as a convention center, or their original plans did, and Commissioner Hall claimed there was enough money to make all the changes planned/proposed by the commissioners from lodging taxes, etc. Not sure why the county needs to subsidize the aquarium’s operations.
What a surprise, someone in the vacation rental industry not wanting to increase the tax on their business. Hey I’d rather out-of-towners pay than us locals. I really don’t give a darned what anyone in the vacation rental industry says because they are responsible for a gross lack of affordable housing in this area including nowhere for workers to live.