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Regional MAG adviser outlines free services for small Utah towns, explains short-term rental tax and regulation options
Summary
Spencer Foster of the Mountainland Association of Governments described a state-funded Local Administrative (LA) program that provides free technical help to small municipalities, explained how a transient room tax (TRT) is implemented and how short-term rental (STR) ordinances work, and offered templates and follow-up support.
Spencer Foster, the local administrative adviser for the Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), told the Kamas City Council and Planning Commission that MAG offers a state-funded program that provides free technical assistance to small cities and towns.
Foster said the program, "was created in 2023" and currently covers "about 40 cities and towns" with populations under 10,000 that pay dues to the Utah League of Cities and Towns. He described services MAG can provide, including salary studies, personnel-policy reviews, ordinance drafting, budget advice and model templates: "You don't pay anything to MAG to utilize my services," Foster said.
Why it matters: Small municipalities often lack staff capacity for policy, code and administrative work. Foster said the MAG LA program is intended to act as a low-cost extension of local staff and to offer templates and examples other towns have used.
Foster spent substantial time explaining transient room taxes and short-term rental rules. "A TRT ordinance is... basically saying we want to collect taxes for any short term rentals — hotels, motels, Airbnb's," he said. He described the implementation steps: adopt an ordinance, send a notice to the state or county tax commission, and the agency that collects lodging taxes will then remit the city's share. Foster added that even if a town has not publicly registered STRs, platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo still collect and remit taxes, which a town can seek to receive if it has a TRT in place.
On regulation of STRs, Foster said many small towns take a restrictive approach: "Most commonly for the smaller towns, they're saying we don't want them at all, so we're restricting them... Short term rentals are not allowed other than... hotels, motels." He also said some towns adopt permitting regimes or grandfathering provisions for existing rentals.
Foster discussed a pending state bill aimed at enabling enforcement against advertising platforms and noted uncertainty in the legislature's final language. "How it looks right now is that they're trying to grandfather anyone in that has a STR already," he said, and added that if the bill creates deadlines, MAG can work with the city on ordinance language to comply.
Foster offered hands-on support and templates: MAG maintains a resources repository (magutah.gov-LA) and can prepare ordinance or tax-letter language for the city. Council members asked to have materials sent to the city planner; Foster suggested sending drafts to "Amanda" to begin the process and said he would follow up by email and in his newsletter.
Ending: Foster said MAG will also provide a forthcoming training and templates for local data-privacy requirements that cities are being asked to adopt at the state level. He invited officials to request follow-up assistance and examples appropriate to Kamas' needs.
