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Topeka council approves raising transient guest tax to 8.5%; advocates and homeless service providers warn of impacts
Summary
Council approved a charter ordinance to raise the transient guest (hotel) tax from 7% to 8.5% in 2027. Proponents said the change would align Topeka with peer cities; a transient speaker and others warned that even small nightly increases can harm people relying on low-cost lodging.
The Topeka Governing Body voted May 5 to increase the city’s transient guest tax from 7% to 8.5%, a change the mayor and proponents said would align the city’s hotel tax rate with other similarly sized Kansas communities and generate funds for economic development and city programs.
Mayor Spencer L Duncan framed the ordinance as a policy decision to “get in line with what the rest of the cities in our area and our size throughout Kansas are already doing” and emphasized that no decisions had yet…
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