SOUTH WHIDBEY RECORD: Langley creates new lodging tax advisory committee (AUDIO)

Kira Erickson reports from the Langley City Council meeting on Mon. Sep. 19, 2022.

In response to the growing number of citizen concerns about how some tax revenues are being spent, the city of Langley has formed a new committee to help address them.…

The city of Langley, like most municipalities and counties in the state, adopted a 2% lodging tax, sometimes referred to as the motel/hotel tax. Under state law, revenues from the tax must be used to fund activities promoting tourism or tourism-related facilities or attractions.

They Said It

The council’s conversation veered into affordable housing, when Councilmember Thomas Gill lamented that the city doesn’t bring in enough money to do anything related to housing. He suggested entertaining the idea of something like that at the county level.

“I don’t think anything meaningful would get done without a much larger base of income at this point, not in the timeframe that most people are thinking,” he said.

[Councilmember Craig] Cyr disagreed.

“While it could be complex, this lodging tax revenue could be used to fund bonds for affordable housing,” he said. “And if you look at this over a 10-year period, there’s really some significant money that could be used.”

He added that he would be willing to let some subject matter experts dive into the issue and see what’s possible.

Councilmember Rhonda Salerno was supportive of creating the new lodging tax committee for Langley and suggested that existing members of the county’s joint tourism board could be part of it.

“I think we have excess money that hasn’t been spent,” she said. “We have to look creatively at how we can use this money.”