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Oregon House Passes Bill to Widen Scope of Lodging Tax

SALEM, Ore. (April 25, 2005) -- Visitors to resorts like Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch would help pay for Oregon tourism marketing under a bill that cleared the Oregon House on Wednesday.

The legislation widens the scope of a 1 percent statewide lodging tax that was passed by the 2003 assembly, but that original law inadvertently left out overnight accommodations at places like cabins, rental houses and tent spaces.

A state legal opinion determined the tax applies only to places "designed for" overnight accommodation, such as hotels and motels, but not places that were built as houses, cabins or condos and are used as vacation rentals.

"The 1 percent was intended to apply to all transient lodging facilities," said Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, the floor carrier of the legislation. "This bill is an attempt to capture that intent."
 
Under House Bill 2197, those additional lodging facilities would start paying the tax in January 2006. The legislation passed by a 55-to-1 tally and now moves to the Senate.

The statewide tax has generated $8.2 million since it went into effect in January 2004, and adding resorts is expected to boost collections by $345,000 in the 2005-2007 budget cycle and by $507,000 in 2007-2009, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office.

The dollars have helped beef up media campaigns to lure more tourists from other Western states and to convince Oregonians to take vacations without crossing state lines, said Todd Davidson, executive director of the state tourism commission.

The bill exempts health facilities and nursing homes from the transient tax, as well as overnight camps run by nonprofits and churches.

Executives from Black Butte, Sunriver Resort and Sunriver-based Sunset Realty, which manages 270 rental houses and condominiums, support the bill.

Rep. Gene Whisnant, R- Sunriver, said he got more comfortable with the legislation after calling Central Oregon tourism officials.

"I wanted to be sure this is just clarifying the old law and isn't something new," he said. "They expected to pay this in the first place, so this is not going to surprise people, hopefully."




Also See: Hotel owners suggest tax increase (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) / March 2005

The Greenbrier Opposes Raising Local Room Tax / January 2002

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