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Panel approves permissive lodging-tax waiver for displaced residents during declared emergencies
Summary
Representative Powell's bill would let local governments temporarily waive or refund hotel occupancy taxes for displaced residents after a declared emergency using resident attestation and local guardrails; the committee advanced the permissive tool 7–0 after questions about fraud prevention and applicability in counties without hotels.
Representative Powell told the committee HB 2,210 would provide a locally available tool allowing counties or cities, when they declare an emergency, to temporarily waive or reimburse lodging taxes for residents displaced by the emergency, using a simple attestation system and guardrails to limit fraud. “This just saves a few bucks in in the counties, gives them total autonomy to allow for a temporary waiver or to reimburse hotel occupancy taxes for these very residents, when there's a declared emergency that makes their homes unsafe or unlivable,” he said.
Members raised practical questions about verification, enforcement and how the rule would apply where there are no local hotels. Powell said the bill relies on a good-faith attestation by residents, that lodging operators may rely on those attestations in good faith and be held harmless absent actual knowledge of fraud, and that counties could expand options (adjacent counties, reimbursement mechanisms) as needed. The committee advanced the bill unanimously to the State and Local Government calendar.
