Commissioners defer quarter-point tourism tax allocation, ask sheriff to recommend uses

The Davis County Commission on Aug. 26 discussed how to use a newly enacted quarter‑percent increase in the county transient room tax and directed staff to include a budget transfer for review rather than immediately committing funds.

Commission members and staff said the quarter‑percent — effective Jan. 1 under a recently instituted resolution — must be tied to mitigation of tourism impacts, such as sanitation, emergency medical services, search and rescue, law enforcement, and road repairs. County controller Scott Park estimated the increment would produce “about a 150,000 based on last year’s numbers.”

County Attorney Troy Rellings and department leaders advised commissioners to choose specific, auditable uses to satisfy state reporting requirements and the new state auditor scrutiny. Kent Anderson of Community and Economic Development and Jessica Merrill highlighted the statute’s reporting units and said the cleaner the justification the fewer questions auditors will raise. Examples discussed included funding a full‑time patrol officer for mountain areas or equipping search‑and‑rescue teams, rather than a general, unlabeled transfer.

Rather than assign the money now, commissioners agreed to include a preliminary transfer in next year’s budget and have the Sheriff’s Office make a formal recommendation on allocation. Kent Anderson said staff could “put a transfer out in our budget for next year for a 120,000” as an initial placeholder and then work with the sheriff’s office to determine whether funds should be spent directly by the sheriff, applied to the county shooting range to free general fund dollars, or used for another tourism‑impact mitigation activity.

No formal vote was taken at the work session; commissioners directed staff to refine the accounting and reporting approach during the budget kickoff and return with specific, auditable proposals during budget hearings.