Resident urges state law change to count second homes in resort-community sales-tax calculation
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Summary
A resident urged the Midway City Council to pursue a change in state law to count secondary residences toward resort-community transient-room-night calculations, arguing that second homes undercount Midway’s resort tax base.
During public comment, Kent Jones of 138 West 100 South urged the council to pursue legislative changes to how the state calculates resort-community transient room nights. Jones said Midway has a large share of secondary residences that are not captured in existing transient‑room-night counts and proposed adding a category for secondary residences so towns with many second homes would receive fuller credit for resort taxes.
He presented exhibits he said were built from publicly available state parcel data and told the council Midway has about "655 secondary homes," which he said represented roughly 23% of the city's parcels. Using an average-bedroom conversion he described, Jones estimated that counting secondary residences would add several thousand transient-room nights and materially affect the resort‑community sales-tax base.
Why it matters: Midway currently collects resort-community sales tax that the council and staff say provides meaningful revenue (Jones estimated about $1.2 million, or roughly 20% of the city budget). Jones said that if the resort tax calculation excludes second homes, Midway is undercounted and that a statutory change or a bill sponsored by a state legislator could address that gap.
Council response: The mayor and several councilmembers thanked Jones for the research. The mayor recalled meeting in the past with the author of the original resort‑tax bill and said a prior amendment — giving Midway more time to come back into compliance after a revenue shortfall — had helped. The mayor and councilmembers indicated interest in "looking into it"; no formal vote was taken but the council agreed to pursue additional research and potential meetings with a possible legislative sponsor and the state tax commission.
Staff context: Council members and staff cautioned that statutory changes take time; the mayor noted the city was "good for the next three years" regarding resort‑tax compliance, suggesting there was time to research options before decisive action.
Next steps: Council offered a straw‑poll level of interest and asked staff and volunteers to continue research and to request a meeting with a possible legislative sponsor and with the state tax commission to test the idea. No formal direction, ordinance or ordinance amendment was recorded in the transcript.