County will ask voters to OK tourist tax hike

Healdsburg will also ask voters for bed tax hike
A plan to hit tourists for more money when they spend a night in Sonoma County has just enough voter support to pass this November, according to a new county research poll.
County Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT) would jump from the current 9 percent to a proposed 12 percent rate if the ballot measure succeeds. The TOT is what visitors pay when they stay in local hotels, motels, vacation houses and campgrounds. The proposed change will impact lodging facilities under county jurisdiction, outside city limits. Healdsburg will also ask its voters to increase TOT this fall.
The county’s current 9 percent TOT now generates nearly $14 million annually, not counting what tourists pay when they stay overnight in one of the county’s nine cities, where TOT taxes are already collected at 12 percent or more. Total TOT revenue collected from visitors to the county and its nine cities is approximately $33 million and climbing, according to the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.
A survey last month showed “a narrow majority” of 53 percent support for the county TOT tax hike among county voters, said David Metz, president of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Metz, the consulting firm that conducted the poll.
Potential no votes totaled 43 percent, with 6 percent of voters undecided, based on 400 telephone interviews with voters likely to cast ballots in November, said Metz.
Some of the new county TOT revenue, estimated at nearly $5 million annually, would be spent on road repairs and affordable housing measures, say County Supervisors, who are voting next week (Aug. 9) to officially place the TOT tax hike on this November’s ballot.
Approximately $1.2 million in new revenue would go into the county general fund and $3.6 million to the county’s tourism advertising budget, according to tax revenue projections.
This new revenue “could be dedicated to addressing the impacts of tourism” including adding funds “for workforce development and workforce housing, fire and emergency services, zoning code enforcement, operator compliance, water quality protection and infrastructure improvements,” said Sonoma County Administrative Analyst Hannah Euser in her report to the Board of Supervisors.
With Sonoma County’s visitor industry booming, tourism’s impact on roads, housing and quality of life here needs to be addressed, County Supervisors agreed.
“That’s only going to grow here in the county,” said Fifth District Supervisor Efren Carrillo, regarding the county’s booming visitor-serving industry. “We’re going to see it increase,” said Carrillo. “I think we have to make the argument that we have to respond to some of the consequences that come from that.”
The proposed TOT increase, “in my opinion, would do that,” said Carrillo. “Our job now is to make that clear to the voters.”
Fourth District Supervisor James Gore agreed the TOT hike is appropriate considering the economic importance of the tourism industry in Sonoma County. “I think we’re going toward a good solution here,” said Gore.
“I have one concern,” said Gore. “The ballot language to me reads as if it’s a potpourri,” that lacks clarity on how the new tax money can be spent, said Gore, alluding to local voters’ rejection last year of a so-called county road tax (Measure A) that failed to specify how the proceeds from a proposed county sales tax increase would actually be used.
The current TOT ballot language “needs to be clear that it’s a bed tax on tourists,” said Gore. The ballot proposal also needs to make clear that Sonoma County’s current 9 percent TOT is lower than neighboring counties and all nine cities in Sonoma County, said Gore.
Visitors staying in downtown Healdsburg already pay 14 percent in taxes added to their hotel bills. The cities of Cloverdale and Sebastopol have hotel visitor taxes of 12 percent and in the town of Windsor’s business improvement area the tax totals 14 percent.
“I’d like some efforts into clarifications that would make that stuff pop,” on the county’s ballot that voters will read in November, said Gore.
The TOT ballot measure is now called the “Sonoma County Vital Services Measure,” but that will probably change to make it more specific, said Sonoma County Administrator Veronica Ferguson. “We’ve been talking about calling it the “Sonoma County Tax on Tourists,” said Ferguson.
 It might be even more convincing to tell voters the TOT ballot measure will “Tax the Tourists,” said Third District Supervisor Shirlee Zane. “It’s much more affirmative.”