Routt County commissioners agreed to press staff to prepare public outreach and legal steps needed if the board decides to place a county lodging tax on the November ballot. The commissioners asked staff to send a letter to the lodging community, to craft boundaries and to prepare an intergovernmental agreement with the clerk, aiming to meet a late-August calendar for formal actions.

The discussion matters because the county could ask voters to approve a new tax that, under recently referenced state legislation, would allow funds to be used for expanded categories including infrastructure maintenance and improvements, public safety, and a capped portion for destination marketing/stewardship. Commissioners said they want to be clear about how any revenue would be used before asking for public support.

Jay Harrington, the county manager, told commissioners that staff had filed an initial notice with the county clerk to preserve the option of putting a question on the ballot and that a final timeline for ballot language and the required intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the clerk would have to be met in August. Commissioners discussed holding a special meeting so the board could approve an IGA and a resolution by Aug. 26 if they choose to move forward. They were told the county’s drop-dead date for finalized ballot language is Sept. 5.

Commissioners asked staff to: circulate a redraft of a lodging-industry letter and invite lodging operators to submit written comments or come to a designated public hearing; prepare possible boundary maps; and coordinate a publicly noticed hearing to collect input. Commissioners discussed whether municipalities that currently do not levy their own lodging tax (specifically Oak Creek and Yampa, identified by staff) would be included automatically under the state law or could be excluded; staff and legal said the draft legislation, as interpreted, would apply countywide except in municipalities that already levy a lodging tax, and that would likely include towns that currently do not levy a tax unless they adopt their own local tax later.

Commissioners also discussed how any county lodging tax would be administered and distributed. They noted confidentiality limits on sales-tax data that make it difficult to allocate tax receipts to single properties, and they asked staff to plan how municipalities and small jurisdictions would be represented if a tax board is formed to manage allocations and implementation. Commissioners asked staff to prepare options on whether and how revenues generated inside smaller municipalities would be returned to those municipalities or otherwise shared.

Next steps assigned to staff included: revising and circulating the industry letter, scheduling an informational hearing and at least one later formal public hearing, preparing boundary maps and advising whether Oak Creek and Yampa would be included under current state drafting, drafting an IGA with the clerk, and proposing dates for a county public hearing before the Aug. 26 calendar milestone. No formal policy change or vote occurred; commissioners instructed staff to return with drafts and hearing dates for future decisions.

If the board takes any formal vote on a lodging-tax measure, it will do so in public meeting with the required public-notice timeline. Commissioners emphasized they want the outreach letter to stress the intended uses (infrastructure maintenance, public safety and destination stewardship) rather than preliminary revenue estimates, and they directed staff to offer both an in-person meeting option and an avenue for written comment for lodging businesses that cannot attend daytime meetings.