Jay Voters To Decide On Lodging Tax

People who live in the town of Jay will be voting on an 8-cent hotel tax in the April 4th election. It is a lodging tax, which means that if someone stays in a hotel or Airbnb, they will have to pay an extra tax on top of their lodging rate.

Mayor Becki Farley said that this means Jay citizens will not be paying an extra tax if the proposition passes. It's geared towards those visiting Jay.

"Well, your residents are not gonna pay for it. The people that pay for it are going to be the people that visit your community, those people that come here for vacation or for events or business or to fish. Those are the people that stay in those facilities overnight. They are going to pay for it; the citizens aren’t going to pay nothing," Farley said.

The money generated from the hotel tax would be used for things like improvements to the town's infrastructure, including roads. Farley said that she doesn't believe that Jay has had a hotel tax in the past.

"It was just something that I became aware of when I became the mayor about four years ago, and the clerk at that time brought it to my attention and said 'are you aware that we don't have it?' I said, 'I heard that in the past,' and it was just something that I wrote down on the list of things to do," Farley said.

The town has been using its sales tax and use tax to make improvements, and Farley said that the hotel tax would only help in that department.

If the proposition is not approved, Farley said that she will try to figure out what her citizens' concerns are and and may try a hotel tax again in the future.