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Warren County panel approves online municipal accounting form; staff clarifies how 25% occupancy-tax share is distributed
Summary
The Warren County Occupancy Tax Coordination Committee approved a resolution to move municipal accounting to an online form and reviewed how the county calculates and distributes the 25% share of occupancy tax to municipalities, including an October $30,000 prepayment and remainder distribution based on prior-year receipts.
Warren County’s Occupancy Tax Coordination Committee voted June 23 to approve an online municipal accounting form that will replace the handwritten reports municipalities have used to document how they spend the 25% share of occupancy-tax proceeds.
The change was approved after a motion to move the item forward, with Supervisor Runyon seconding the measure; the committee recorded the motion as carried. Committee staff said the digital form will not change reporting requirements, only the method of submission.
The county staff member who presented the form said, “So, basically, all the municipalities, annually submit their reporting for where the dollars were spent of the 25% that they received based on the law, and therefore, we are taking this to a digitized form. It's really what it is. We're not changing any of it.”
Why it matters: the form standardizes municipal reporting and lets towns update entries throughout the year, staff said, which will make aggregated county reporting and research easier to run. Staff described town-specific logins, the ability to tab through fields rather than type into a PDF, and automated addition of totals.
Committee members asked practical questions about usability and acceptance of handwritten filings. One supervisor asked whether handwritten submissions would still be accepted; staff replied, “If you want them handwritten, we won't accept them,” and clarified the county can enter a handwritten submission in the system on behalf of a municipality if necessary. Staff also offered in-person trainings: “We'll be available to come to all the towns and do a tutorial, run you through it.”
The committee also reviewed how the 25% municipal allocation is computed. County staff summarized the multi-step process: the county budgets an occupancy-tax rate (the example used an 8% budget figure), 25% of that budgeted revenue is set aside for municipalities, each municipality receives a guaranteed $30,000 prepayment in October, and the remainder is distributed the following May based on a municipality’s share of prior-year occupancy-tax receipts.
County staff gave numeric examples during the discussion: the total occupancy-tax receipts for 2024 were stated as about $7.9 million, of which 25% equals roughly $2.0 million to municipalities; after the October prepayments (each municipality receiving $30,000), the remaining amount — described in the meeting as about $1.6 million in the example — is allocated by each town’s percentage of prior-year collections.
What the committee decided: the resolution to adopt the online municipal accounting form was approved and staff will implement the platform, provide training, and make the aggregated data available for reporting. No change to eligible uses or reporting requirements for municipal occupancy-tax funds was proposed or adopted at the meeting.
Looking ahead: staff said they will circulate the form and an explanatory report to supervisors and municipalities, and they will add the item to future agendas as part of ongoing process improvements.
