Lincoln County’s board of commissioners voted Wednesday to ask voters to consider an increase in the county’s lodging tax.
If approved in November, the tax on hotel stays in Lincoln County would go from 10% to 12%.
Most of the extra revenue would fund operations and improvements at county parks.
Anyone staying at a hotel in unincorporated Lincoln County currently has to pay a tax equal to 10% of the cost of renting their room. That’s in addition to a statewide lodging tax of 1.5%, which would not be affected by this potential change.
Commissioner Claire Hall noted that the county has had this tax for around 50 years and rarely raises it.
“In all of those decades since, it’s only been increased three times, so I think, you know, we’re not guilty here of going back to the well too often," she said.
The county tax does not apply in incorporated cities, though Newport, Depoe Bay and Lincoln City already charge a 12% tax for hotel stays.
