COLUMBIA COUNTY, Columbia County has furloughed general fund employees, cut 14 positions, spent one-time money and sold county property over the past two years to balance its budget, according to the county’s own explanatory statement in the voters’ pamphlet. Measure 5-314 is the county’s answer: a tax on hotel, motel, campground and vacation rental stays that would be paid by visitors, not residents.
The Taxpayers Association of Oregon filed two arguments against it. Nobody filed an argument for it. Here is what the measure does, who pays, where the money goes and what each side says.
What It Does
The ballot question is one sentence: “Shall Columbia County implement a County-wide transient lodging tax to be paid by lodgers?” The tax would be added to the price of stays under 30 days in hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, RV parks, campgrounds and short-term rentals, per the county’s notice of measure election. Long-term renters would not pay it.
The rate depends on where you sleep: 13 percent in unincorporated Columbia County and in any city that does not collect its own lodging tax, and 4 percent inside cities that already do. The county says it intends to set a reduced rate for county residents staying overnight in county parks.
Lodging operators and booking sites such as Airbnb and VRBO would collect the tax when a guest pays and send it in quarterly. The county plans to contract with the state of Oregon to handle collection, and operators may keep a percentage to cover their costs.
Where the Money Goes
The county estimates $150,000 to $300,000 a year. Under state law, half of any new local lodging tax must go to tourism promotion and tourism-related facilities; the county lists fairgrounds and county park improvements and resilience grants for restaurants and lodging businesses as examples. The other half can go to the general fund, which pays for the Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office, the Juvenile Department and other services.
The explanatory statement, submitted by Commissioner Casey Garrett, says the general fund is almost entirely property taxes, which state law caps at 3 percent annual growth, and that expenses are rising faster. It cites a 2019 fiscal sustainability report that flagged lodging taxes as a way to raise money from visitors “who put burdens on the County’s systems but do not pay property taxes.” The statement notes that most Oregon cities and counties have adopted a lodging tax since the Legislature allowed them in 2003.
The Case Against
The Taxpayers Association of Oregon, a Portland-area group that runs OregonWatchdog.com, filed both opposition arguments. Its first lists four objections: that 13 percent is high; that the tax lands on “family-run motels, campgrounds, and short-term rental hosts” who must collect and remit it; that only half the revenue goes to tourism; and that the $150,000 to $300,000 estimate is “an open-ended estimate” with no sunset date.
Its second argument says the tax “starts with visitors, who don’t vote in local elections, then let the revenue stream become a permanent line in the county budget,” and that raising a lodging tax later is easier than creating one. Neither argument names a Columbia County lodging business.
What Happens Next
Ballots were mailed Oct. 14 and are due Nov. 3. If the measure passes, the county would adopt the tax by ordinance; the pamphlet does not give a start date. If it fails, the county’s statement says it faces further cuts to general fund services.
The county contact on the notice is Garrett, 230 Strand St., St. Helens, 503-397-3839.