Tri Cities Real Estate News & Views

AT ISSUE
Currently there are taxes levied on Hotels and Motels that are designated for the City and are to be used for tourism and economic development. These dollars are under attack to be used for areas other than tourism or economic development. The State of Washington invests one of the lowest amounts of funding for tourism in comparison to the rest of the nation; to cut this even further would only hurt this state more in its attempts to attract revenue from out of our state.  In addition, there are many regional capital tourism projects that need the States funding support.

TRI CITY LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL POSITION
• The TCLC believes that all tax dollars collected under the hotel-motel tax surcharge should be designated only for the purposes of developing tourism and economic development and not for municipal costs incurred by a city or county.
• Support for the Hanford Research Interpretive Center, Confluence Project Sacajawea State Park, Walter Clore Culinary Center and Red Mountain AVA.

BACKGROUND
In the last two legislative sessions there has been cities and counties wanting to use the tax dollars collected for tourism and economic development for municipal costs such as their fire department, police department, or waste management. This is justified by saying that these services are also used by visitors and monies should be used from the hotel-motel tax to help pay for these services. The truth be told is that the backfill monies from the state for cities and counties is being cut and they are looking for revenue sources to replace it.  In addition these concerns there are many regional tourism projects that cannot be solely funding by Hotel Motel tax funds. The State’s financial support of these capital tourism projects will enable the growth of our region as a tourism destination location.

For more information, contact the Tri Cities Chamber of Commerce.