Together, we have built a city that is drawing visitors, conventions and special events like never before. In fact, each year, Oklahoma City’s visitor economy now accounts for billions of dollars in economic impact and hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. On Tuesday, we have an opportunity to support that growth and build upon it — without taxing our residents.
We probably don’t talk about this enough, but through the tax dollars they leave behind, visitors are significant contributors to our city’s core services, like police, fire and streets. Visitors also drive improvements in amenities and services that we all enjoy, like nonstop flights at our airport. And of course, thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses are dependent on visitors.
As such, we would love to welcome more visitors, and we can. After three decades of investment, we have the venues, the hotels and the attractions. All we lack are the resources to market the city to visitors and to support the events and venues that draw visitors here. We have built a world-class city, but we have to spend money to attract people. That’s just the name of the game. Traditionally, those resources have come from one source — the hotel/motel tax.
OKC’s hotel/motel tax rate was last adjusted 20 years ago. Since that time, our peer cities have raised their rates significantly above ours, which means they are significantly outspending us to market their cities. It also means when you visit their cities, you’re paying for their marketing efforts while not requiring they pay at the same level for ours. It is time to address this issue, and so, on Tuesday, we have the opportunity to vote yes to raising the hotel/motel tax, which will put more resources into those efforts, without raising taxes on our residents.
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Obviously, you don’t want to have a hotel/motel tax rate that is too high — because that could impact the convention business — but with this proposed increase, our new rate will simply be in line with peer cities (and actually still below some). That’s why some of the strongest supporters of a "yes" vote on Tuesday are the city’s hoteliers, who are clearly the one interest group that would be most cautious. But they recognize that this won’t affect their competitiveness and they see the major benefits that will come with these new resources.
On Tuesday, voters will have the opportunity to consider giving us the resources we need to compete, which we will use to market OKC, to support events, and to also support our two major venues that drive event business — the Oklahoma City Convention Center and the OKC Fairgrounds.
In 2004, when we last adjusted the hotel/motel tax rate, it got 89% support from our voters. There’s a pretty simple reason for such a high level of support. You don’t pay this tax. That’s why this is a uniquely beneficial tool. This is just about the best deal there is. We tax visitors and we use their taxes to attract more visitors, and all of these visitors significantly help pay for city services they barely use. It’s the ultimate win-win, so join me and vote "yes" on Tuesday.
David Holt is the mayor of Oklahoma City.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC voters to decide hotel/motel tax: 'This is just about the best deal there is' | Mayor
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