Efforts to renew Park County’s 4% lodging tax have been complicated by the Legislature’s recent passage of a new statewide lodging tax.

Due to some bad information from a state official, resolutions recently passed by the Powell City Council and Meeteetse Town Council — aimed at putting the county’s lodging tax before local voters in November — are null and void, and the councils will have to consider corrected resolutions next month.

At its regular meeting on June 15, the Powell City Council approved a resolution to put a 2% countywide lodging tax on the ballot in November’s general election. However, local officials later learned they’d been given incorrect information from the Wyoming Department of Revenue and that they need to seek a 4% tax.

Currently, all lodging services in Park County are taxed at 4%, which is a rate voters have approved every four years since 1996. There was no statewide tax until March, when the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill creating a 5% lodging tax statewide on all lodging services. The Wyoming Office of Tourism will receive 3% of the tax, and the other 2% will go to local lodging tax boards. The dollars can only be used to promote tourism. The statewide tax takes effect in January.

Prior to the creation of the new statewide tax, the Office of Tourism was funded by the state’s general fund. With mineral taxes declining, the office’s budget was taking a hit every year.

“Every year, that budget is reduced, which makes Wyoming uncompetitive with other states,” said Park County Travel Council Executive Director Claudia Wade.

At the time the statewide lodging tax discussion started, Wade said Wyoming ranked 32nd among the 50 states for funding tourism promotion.

The law allows voters to impose a local option lodging tax of up to 4% — effectively an additional 2% on top of the 2% that’s soon to be included with the state’s new 5% tax. The problem is the 4% currently imposed on Park County expires at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2021, whereas the state tax goes into effect on Jan 1, 2021.

The Park County Travel Council will receive 2% of the 5% the state collects, so Dan Noble, director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue, instructed Wade she would only need to seek another 2%. However, that turned out to be wrong. Since the statewide lodging bill doesn’t go into effect when county voters consider the tax, for one final year, they need to vote on a 4% tax, as if the statewide tax did not exist.

“Please let the county and city officials know that I’m sorry for the confusion I created,” Noble said in an email to Wade.

By the time Wade became aware of the issue, the Powell and Meeteetse councils had approved a Lodging Tax Resolution for only 2%. Wade is now in the process of bringing a new resolution to those governing bodies, as well as the Cody City Council, prior to the July 10 deadline, to get the measure on the ballot. The county commission will consider the resolution at its July 7 meeting.

If at least two of the municipalities and the county sign off, the wording on the November ballot will ask voters to renew the 4% tax for another four years, which Wade said should prevent people from believing they’re considering a new tax.

Wade said she doesn’t like to consider the possibility, but if voters didn’t renew the tax, the lodging tax would rise from 4 to 7% in January After the fiscal year ends on June 30, 2021, though, the tax would drop to 5% — with 3% going to the Wyoming Office of Tourism and 2% to Park County Travel Council. That would effectively cut the travel council’s revenues in half and  limit the council’s ability to promote tourism, Wade said, which would decrease the number of visitors to Park County. Wade thinks the county would still see some people coming through, due to the county hosting Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance, but for restaurants and area attractions to thrive, a coordinated effort to promote tourism is needed.

“I think in these past few months we’ve seen what happens when people aren’t coming to the area,” she said. “Tourism is critical to Park County’s economy.”

The promotional efforts of the travel council, Wade said, relieves the burden from county businesses, who would individually have to market to visitors from across the country.

The general election is Nov. 3.

In the 2024 election, voters would be asked to support a 2% tax. Lodging taxes are assessed on top of sales taxes.