Marietta finance staff reports drop in hotel-motel tax but overall collections steady

The Marietta Finance Committee received an update on tourism-related taxes and the city’s year-end financial position, including a sharp month-to-month drop in hotel-motel tax collections.

Finance staff said April receipts remitted in May for hotel-motel tax totaled $279,223.88 — “the lowest that we've seen in the last 4 years,” according to the presentation. The staff report said the drop likely reflected a hotel still transitioning and another property that had not renewed its alcohol license, not a miscollection. The committee received and filed the report.

Staff told the committee that despite the hotel shortfall the city is “over collected to budget” on the 3% auto-rental tax for the fiscal year, and that the higher auto-rental receipts have partly offset lower hotel revenues. The finance update said the city’s fiscal-year hotel/motel and related collections remain below the budget projection of $3.839 million (as presented at the meeting) but that recent collection activity and delinquency recovery could narrow that gap.

On other local revenues, staff reported upticks in business-license collections following the March 31 deadline and increased commercial building-permit activity, and said corrective budget adjustments made during the year have positioned the city for a positive year-end result.

Committee members asked whether the hotel drop reflected a reporting error; staff said it did not and pointed to the two properties described above. The committee voted to receive and file the finance report.

The committee also approved routine meeting business (minutes) and moved several items to the full council docket for July consideration during the meeting’s business block.