This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.
CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming House of Representatives passed a bill on third reading during their Monday, Feb. 17 floor session that would establish a statewide lodging tax. The bill will move to the Senate for consideration.
Several amendments to the bill were proposed. Three failed and one was adopted. Some of those amendments were intended to make Wyomingites exempt from paying the lodging tax.
House District 57 Representative Chuck Gray proposed an amendment that would exempt all Wyomingites who show a valid state ID from paying the lodging tax.
Gray said that advertisements which the lodging tax pays for benefit people from out of state and not those from Wyoming.
“These ads are being consumed in France and Chicago and other parts of the world,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense for Wyomingites to pay for this.”
Gray said that he thought his amendment was constitutional despite adding that he thinks the bill would be challenged under interstate commerce rules.
House District 11 Representative Jared Olsen said that he thought the amendment may be unconstitutional.
“I think this amendment is extremely problematic from a constitutional standpoint,” he said. “I get nervous when a non-expert gives an expert an opinion.”
House District 05 Representative Shelly Duncan said that she was against the amendment, adding that she didn’t think people pay much attention to the lodging tax when staying at hotels or motels.
“We don’t pay attention to that,” she said. “We just pay it. We’re talking pennies on the dollar to be able to remove funds from our general fund to be able to self-stustain our tourism, the number two industry in our state.”
Gray’s amendment failed along with an amendment proposed by House District 25 Representative Dan Laursen. Larusen’s proposed amendment would have exempted Wyoming property owners from paying the lodging tax.
House District 23 Representative Andy Schwartz said he was against this concept.
“It would exempt property owners, but if you are a renter you would not be exempt,” he said.
Laursen said that while renters would indeed be pushed out, renters who own businesses could be exempt from the lodging tax under his proposal.
Schwartz proposed an amendment which the House adopted. That amendment makes county fair boards exempt from lodging taxes when they provide lodging services. The House adopted this amendment.
House District 01 Representative Tyler Lindholm proposed another amendment.
The bill would establish a 5% statewide lodging tax. 2% of that would be distributed to counties. The other 3% would mainly go toward a new Wyoming Tourism Account.
80% of the state’s share would go toward that account. Funding beyond would go into a reserve tourism account. Lindholm’s amendment instead would direct such funding to the state’s “School Foundation Program” account, but that amendment failed.
The House passed the bill on a vote of 39-19. The vote was as follows:
- Ayes: BARLOW, BLAKE, BROWN, BURKHART, BURLINGAME, CLAUSEN, CLIFFORD, CONNOLLY, CRANK, DAYTON-SELMAN, DUNCAN, EKLUND, EYRE, FLITNER, FREEMAN, FURPHY, GREEAR, HALEY, KINNER, HARSHMAN, KIRKBRIDE, LARSEN LLOYD, MACGUIRE, NEWSOME, NICHOLAS, OBERMUELLER, OLSEN, PAXTON, PELKEY, POWNALL, ROSCOE, SCHWARTZ, SIMPSON, STITH, SWEENEY, WALTERS, WILSON, YIN, ZWONITZER
- Nays: BLACKBURN, CLEM, EDWARDS, GRAY, HALLINAN, HUNT, JENNINGS, LAURSEN DAN, LINDHOLM, LOUCKS, MILLER, PIIPARINEN, SALAZAR, SOMMERS, STYVAR, TASS, WASHUT, WESTERN, WINTER
- Excused: HENDERSON, NORTHRUP
The proposed bill would modify lodging tax rules in Wyoming, creating a 5% statewide lodging tax. While local governments could still impose lodging taxes, the maximum local rate would be reduced from 4% to 2%.
But counties would see a portion of revenues from the 5% statewide lodging tax.
“2% of the 5% statewide lodging assessment would be distributed to each county on a monthly basis in proportion to the taxes collected within the county, including all municipalities in that county,” a fiscal note on the proposed bill explains.
“If a local lodging tax is in place as of January 1, 2021, the local lodging tax would continue until the next election at which the lodging tax would have been considered,” the Legislative Service Office adds. “The new 2% statewide lodging assessment would go into effect upon the expiration of the local lodging tax currently in place.”
Governor Mark Gordon has expressed support for the legislation, saying that it could make Wyoming tourism more competitive with other states.
“I applaud our tourism industry and I support its proposal for a lodging tax that would help Wyoming compete with our neighboring states,” Gordon said in his State of the State address. “Tourism and outdoor recreation in Wyoming represents an enormous opportunity to grow our economy. It is a sector which employs more people and returns substantial sales tax revenue. The revenue comes mostly from outside our state.”
Natrona County Commissioner and Visit Casper CEO Brook Kaufman told the Casper City Council in August that the local lodging tax brought in just under $1.8 million in 2018.
Full details of the proposed lodging tax bill are available online.
