Emery County adopts 2025 tax rates and raises transient room tax to 4.5% to access mitigation grants

The Emery County Commission voted June 17 to adopt the county'wide certified tax rates for 2025 and to increase the transient room tax (TRT) by 0.25 percentage points to 4.5%, enabling eligibility for a new statewide mitigation fund for emergency response and visitor-impact needs.

The commission approved the county'level tax schedule as presented by county staff: general operations at 0.003698, library at 0.00429, recreation/pool at 0.00068 and county assessing/collecting at 0.00463. Commissioners discussed the possibility of using Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) and inland-port revenues to reduce rates in future years but noted any reduction would be permanent if adopted without full budget revisions. Chair called the motion; recorded voice votes showed two aye votes and one recorded nay.

Travel-board and tourism representatives urged the commission to adopt the 0.25 percentage-point TRT increase the same day. The travel-board presenter told the commission the state'level change created a mitigation fund that would accept applications only from counties that adopt the higher rate. "If the counties do not do the increase they are not allowed to apply for that money," the travel-board representative said, adding the fund is set up to let smaller (third- through sixth-class) counties compete for mitigation grants for EMS, search-and-rescue and other visitor-impact services.

Commissioners estimated the quarter-point increase would generate roughly $40,000 in additional annual revenue for the county; commissioners said that revenue would allow local EMS and rescue entities to apply for state mitigation grants that could fund response equipment and incident costs. The commission voted to impose the increased transient room tax; the motion carried by voice vote.

Why it matters: Commissioners said the TRT increase is intended to make visitors, rather than local taxpayers, help fund services such as search-and-rescue and EMS that respond to recreation-related incidents. Staff warned that lowering the permanent county tax rate without reallocating other budgeted revenues could harm county operations in later years.

The commission also approved the Castle Valley Special Service District's 2025 tax rate and several other revenue-related requests during the same meeting. The adopted county rates are effective for the 2025 tax year; staff said taxing entities must finalize their rates by the statutory deadline and warned that adjustments after adoption require special procedures.

The commission expected to revisit revenue sources and proposed uses during the next budget cycle and asked staff to bring forward options for how CRA and inland-port revenues could be applied to reduce the property-tax burden in future years.