Okanogan County LTAC recommends $1.04 million in lodging-tax allocations, forwards proposal to commissioners

The Okanogan County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee on a voice vote agreed to forward a set of lodging-tax allocation recommendations totaling about $1,044,699 to the County Commissioners for final approval. Committee members reviewed higher-than-expected carryover and a statewide adjustment that reduced receipts by roughly $100,000, then adjusted baseline allocations before walking through dozens of marketing, operations and capital requests.

The committee’s budget discussion began after staff reported a carryover of about $1.233 million, well above the earlier estimate of $927,700. Members said the increase reflected stronger-than-expected actual receipts from the prior year; staff also noted a roughly $100,000 state adjustment that reduced available funds but did not eliminate the surplus. Committee members agreed to raise the baseline allocation used for internal calculations to reflect the larger…