Baker City to collect its own transient lodging tax; county debates ordinance, committee seats and startup funding

Baker County commissioners and local tourism partners spent a lengthy work session reviewing how Baker City's decision to begin collecting its own transient lodging tax will affect the county's TLT ordinance, committee membership, existing contracts and near-term marketing budgets.

County officials said the county will need to rewrite the TLT ordinance to remove Baker City as an automatic committee seat and to define how TLT and Economic Development Corporation (EDC) duties will split once the city collects taxes directly. Commissioners and tourism contractors also discussed honoring existing contracts, clarifying which pots of money can be used for marketing versus tourism-related facilities, and whether Baker City should receive some portion of the county fund balance as a startup allocation.

Why it matters

The TLT account holds several hundred thousand dollars in carryover; decisions about who controls those funds and how they may be spent will shape marketing, visitor services and larger tourism facility projects across Baker County. Commissioners said changes will affect existing contracts'including the visitor center, a Baker City Downtown contract and EDC programming'and could require new intergovernmental agreements and bylaw changes.

What commissioners and partners discussed

- Ordinance rewrite and committee seats: County leaders said changing the ordinance is necessary because the current text names Baker City as a committee member. The rewrite will also be used to reconsider how many seats represent the cities that contribute TLT revenue. Several commissioners said they want one representative from each town that pays into the TLT (Sumpter, Halfway, Unity, Richland and others) rather than a city-heavy board.

- Contracts and honoring commitments: County staff and partners agreed they should honor certain contracts that extend past the date Baker City begins collecting its own TLT. Participants discussed whether Baker City Downtown's contract should continue through a previously agreed date (October) or longer; the possibility of rolling short-term payments to the city to avoid disrupting scheduled events came up repeatedly.

- Fund balances and startup funding: Commissioners debated whether Baker City is owed a portion of the current TLT carryover as a starting balance. One commissioner argued the city should not begin with zero and should receive some funding to begin local marketing; another commissioner argued against giving away the county's fund balance. Participants referenced numbers in the staff packet showing TLT distributions since 2020, including a total of $845,998.89 that county records show went to the city since 2020. Staff also identified what they said would be $534,999.02 in receipts to Baker City after removing a community-development coordinator line item (participants noted accounting differences and said EDC and TLT amounts must be kept straight).

- Revenue sources and online bookings: Staff noted that online bookings (Airbnb, Expedia, Hotels.com, VRBO and similar platforms) are reported separately from the list of known properties; staff said the online totals are included in TLT revenue and that initial county estimates show a high share of online-paid lodging is inside city limits. Commissioners agreed final splits will depend on how booking platforms geo-fence city boundaries after the administrative split.

- What the money can pay for: Participants reviewed the longstanding 70%/30% distinction used locally and said tourism promotion versus "city services" or EDC uses must be tracked carefully. Several speakers warned that tourism-related facilities and public-safety expenses flagged by a recently proposed state measure (bill 3556 was discussed during the session) could be interpreted broadly and might drain promotion dollars if state law changes definition of allowable uses.

- Priorities for next fiscal year: Commissioners and contractors said the next budget year should preserve funding for two visitor-service lines they described as essential: (1) the visitor center (staff/hours and building costs) and (2) a county-level marketing director or equivalent, even as responsibilities are renegotiated between the county, Bridal/Travel Baker County and the chamber. Participants suggested a phased approach where the county pays existing contracts through the next quarter or until Baker City can collect and operate locally.

Spending examples and clarifications discussed

- Staff presented itemized requests and historical payments: since 2020 county records show a total of $845,998.89 paid to the city from TLT-related accounts (staff packet). Commissioners and staff identified some multi-year allocations: $300,000 and $150,000 tied to past park and golf-course projects were repeatedly cited as examples of how TLT and EDC dollars were spent.

- Event grants and named allocations: the transcript shows TLT paid (or allocated) $10,000 for the East-West Shrine football event and $10,000 to county tournaments in earlier budgets; Halfway has received about $77,000 since 2020 while Sumpter and Unity figures were described as "0" in the particular packet under review. Staff cautioned that some contract payments run on different schedules (monthly contracts versus grant awards) and therefore do not appear in a single roll-up.

No formal votes recorded

The work session recorded discussion but no formal motions or final votes. Commissioners asked staff for a formal written request from Baker City, a clear TLT budget breakdown and proposed ordinance redlines; staff agreed to circulate the blue-lined ordinance language and additional budget detail.

Next steps and timeline

County staff said they will prepare redlined ordinance language, revised MOUs/IGAs as needed, and a county budget breakdown for commissioners to review before making any formal changes. Commissioners asked the visitor center, Bridal/Travel Baker County and the chamber to submit written proposals showing how they would operate under a split TLT regime so the county can evaluate options for one coordinated county marketing function versus separate city and county efforts.

Ending

Commissioners closed the session with agreement to schedule a follow-up work session after staff circulates the ordinance redlines and Baker City provides a formal written request. No regulatory changes will take effect until the county adopts a revised ordinance and any related IGA/MOU changes are signed.