Despite receiving the support of nearly 70% of Park County voters this month, boosters of the county’s lodging tax aren’t resting on their laurels.

Jennifer Thoma, executive director of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce and leader of a political action committee that pushed to renew the 2% tax, said she talked with many people who were confused about who does what in regards to how the lodging tax is spent.

“It behooves all of us to maybe have more transparency,” Thoma said at a Thursday meeting of the Park County Travel Council, which oversees the administration of the tax dollars.

The State of Wyoming assesses a 5% tax on lodging across the state, with 3% going to state tourism efforts and 2% going to county efforts like the travel council. With the renewal of the additional 2%, Park County’s lodging tax rate will remain at 7%, with 4% going to the travel council and local governments.

The local renewal passed easily, with 68% of Park County voters (10,925) in favor and 32% (5,144) opposed; travel council chair John Parsons of Cody called it a “landslide.” However, it was a closer margin than, say, 2020, when the local lodging tax had 75% support.

Park County Travel Council Executive Director Ryan Hauck agreed with Thoma on the disconnect with many voters.

“It’s shown us that local education is still a huge hurdle we need to battle,” he said.

In his governmental position, Hauck is not allowed to advocate for the lodging tax but he can and did provide information about what it funds. Going forward, he proposed a program where his staff would produce “editorials” for local newspapers on certain travel council projects and programs. Hauck said that would be a way to provide more transparency in that area and “make sure the public knows what’s going on.”

Board member Jill Hartmann of Powell said she and another member discussed “the desire to not wait until three years and six months from now to worry about the lodging tax passing. So we were talking about how we can do that, starting right now — now that it’s kind of top of mind.”

Hartmann suggested more efforts to note when events or programs include travel council dollars.

Later in the meeting, the council voted to fund two more such events, giving $1,000 to the Cody chamber for its Christmas parade, and $1,000 to the Cody Country Snowmobiling Association for a planned avalanche training class.

Travel council amended budget

The council held a public hearing ahead of the Thursday afternoon meeting and it drew one commenter, Cody bed and breakfast owner Robin Berry. She said the majority of her summer customers didn’t know Cody had an airport and urged the council to do more to advertise Yellowstone Regional Airport.

The council will vote on an amended budget at its December meeting.

Seat available

There is currently a vacancy on the council, as member Ruffin Prevost recently resigned. Prevost, who is a journalist, took an assignment with a newspaper that didn’t allow him to concurrently serve on the travel council.

Prevost was initially appointed in February 2019 and his latest term was set to expire in March. Park County commissioners will need to pick a replacement.

Lodging tax collection up nearly 11% over last year

Through the first third of the fiscal year, Park County has collected nearly 11% more lodging taxes than last year.

Between June and September, Park County collected $3,409,955.92 in lodging taxes — a roughly $235,500 increase over the same period in 2023.

“Everything is looking good in lodging tax world,” Park County Travel Council Executive Director Ryan Hauck said at a Thursday meeting.

September was actually the highest month for collections at $904,792.63, ahead of June at $840,754.25.

In September county collections (including some of the hotels in Yellowstone National Park) accounted for $616,073.66 of the gross collections and Cody $305,953.10 for the majority of the collections.

Powell collected $11,142.30 and Meeteetse $1,002.33.

Of the money collected, 90% goes to the travel council and 10% to the county government and municipalities.