Hotel owners rethink plan to put tax hike on local ballot

City leaders on Monday were prepared to review a proposed ballot measure aimed at increasing the city’s transient occupancy tax (TOT) to a rate of up to 12 percent. TOT creates revenue for local governments from the taxes charged to guests of local hotels and short-term rentals. Currently, the rate is 10 percent charged to the bill.

An integral part of the plan was to use the resulting TOT revenue increase to help fund a new Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) and expand the promotion of Merced as a destination city. The Merced Hotel and Lodging Association (MHLA) was on board with the idea.

However, a few days before Monday night’s meeting, the MHLA sent a letter to Mayor Matt Serratto and members of the Merced City Council stating that the consensus of its members is to “not support the TOT increase.”

MHLA President Edwin Kainth wrote: “We do believe that we should move forward with forming a TBID and the hotel owners will assess the additional tax on themselves, most likely 2 percent, which will go to fund the TBID. This will need to be voted on by the Association members and passed by a 50 percent plus 1. We believe this might take some effort but is more palatable to our members.”



https://mercedcountytimes.com/hotel-owners-rethink-plan-to-put-tax-hike-on-local-ballot/