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Council authorizes agreements to use general‑fund portion of lodging tax to offset parks' water costs
Summary
The Dalles authorized intergovernmental funding agreements with Wasco County and the Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District to offset park water costs using general‑fund portions of transient lodging tax revenue; council approved administrative flexibility for how funds are transferred.
The Dalles City Council on March 24 authorized the city manager to enter into two intergovernmental funding agreements (IFAs) — one with Wasco County and one with the Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District — to help pay water costs for publicly accessible parks, including Kramer Field. Council also approved an amendment giving staff administrative flexibility to transfer funds either internally to the city water fund or directly to the partner agencies.
City staff said the IFAs respond to a prior ordinance update that removed older mandatory allocations of transient lodging tax (TLT) revenue and opened a path to use the general‑fund portion of TLT for non‑tourism uses that support public facilities. Staff proposed amounts based on recent water use and budgets: $152,000 per year for the parks district’s parks and $40,000 per year to support Kramer Field maintenance and water costs at the county level. The city manager noted that the tourism‑promotion fund (the new dedicated TLT account) will contain roughly 55.4% of TLT revenue and the general fund roughly 44.6% under the revised TLT structure; staff plans to use the general fund share to support the IFAs because water costs do not meet the state’s current definition of “tourism promotion.”
City staff and county/district representatives told council the IFAs are intended as long‑term arrangements but include a mutual written‑agreement clause allowing adjustments if water usage or rates change. Representatives from the parks district and Wasco County said the funding will support heavily used facilities such as the recently improved Cirrus (Saros) Park and Kramer Field, which hosts tournaments and draws visitors into downtown The Dalles.
The motion to authorize the city manager to enter both IFAs, amended to permit administrative flexibility in section 4 about interfund transfers, was moved by Councilor McLaughlin and seconded by Councilor Runyon. Council voted to authorize the agreements as amended.
