Commissioners used the July 3 meeting to pursue new revenue ideas tied to tourism and resort activity, including (1) asking staff to explore whether the county can seek an interstate agreement or local arrangements to capture a resort-related impact fee from adjacent Wyoming resort commerce, and (2) supporting contact with state associations about a proposal to increase the travel-and-tourism tax so a county-retained share would mitigate tourism impacts.

One commissioner proposed exploring an intergovernmental or voluntary arrangement with the Teton County, Wyoming government and with resort owners to capture a small percentage of resort sales — for example, a 1% fee — to pay for county services such as roads, sheriff patrols and emergency response. Commissioners noted any interstate arrangement would require cooperation from Wyoming authorities and might need formal MOUs or legislative backing.

The second idea discussed was a proposal being advanced through statewide channels to raise the 2% travel-and-tourism assessment to 4%, with the incremental 2% returned to the county where it was collected for impact mitigation. Commissioners said Idaho Association of Counties (IAC) and other partners are promoting the change and that an Idaho think tank or advocacy group (the Idaho Freedom Foundation) opposed a prior version of the proposal; the board asked staff to cultivate conversations with regional partners and the resort owner to build support.

The board asked staff to reach out to Teton County, Wyoming, contact the resort owner, and to facilitate conversations with the state advocacy channels and local party committees to gauge support; a local Zoom participant offered to help connect the board with party contacts.

(Ending) Commissioners agreed to pursue outreach and to evaluate whether a resort-impact mechanism or a reworked tourism-tax proposal could be feasible and sufficient to generate material new revenue for services affected by visitor demand.