Cherokee County Voters To Decide On 4 Percent Lodging Tax

Voters in Cherokee County will decide on a four percent lodging tax that would go toward marketing the area to tourists.

Gena McPhail, Tahlequah’s Director of Tourism, said she hopes voters see this not as a tax on people living in the area, but one that will mainly impact visitors and tourists who rent a hotel, cabin, bed and breakfast or yurt within the county.

“If you are renting any kind of lodging facility then you are charged that lodging tax just like you would be in any other county in the United States,” said McPhail.

Tahlequah already has a four percent lodging tax within city limits, and McPhail said twelve other counties in the state have a similar tax.

McPhail said most of the money would be used to promote Cherokee County to visitors.

“We can market the Sequoyah State Park, and we can market anything that’s out on the lake or river.”

75 percent of the tax would go to marketing through advertisement, while 25 percent would go toward beautifying the county. 

“We have a horrible trash issue in the county. If you just drive down the road, you can see the trash everywhere.”

That 25 percent will be used for roadside beautification, additional trash pick-up programs, and educational programs to teach the youth the importance of a cleaner environment.

“Teaching our kids the importance of not throwing their trash out the window or not throwing it just outside; taking care of our county,” McPhail said.

And if leaders plan to market the county on a national level, McPhail said it starts with a cleaner county.

The polls open at 7 in the morning next Tuesday.