A Unanimous Vote
At last night's Lodi City Council meeting, the Council unanimously approved a resolution that credited the TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) audit payments made by hotels in late 2023 and early 2024, as well as clarifying documents which specifically identified what is taxable under the TOT ordinance. The Chamber wrote a blog post and asked for member support for the City Council to take this action. It was the belief of the Chamber leadership, and our hospitality members, that the auditing firm HdL had a different interpretation of what revenue and fees were taxable under the city's TOT ordinance. It was the first audit of the TOT payments since they started being collected over 4 decades ago. 

Lack of Clarity
TOT taxes are collected from people who stay at a hotel, BNB, or short-term rental such as an Air-BNB or VRBO. These taxes are then passed along to the city. The TOT audit conducted by HdL, interpreted the original ordinance to include comped rooms (rooms that the hotel gives for free to local charities or other special situations) as well as a fee that supports the Visit California group, among other items. All the hotels audited had not collected some or all of these items interpreted by HdL to be part of the original ordinance. It proved that there was a lack of clarity that needed to be corrected. It put a hardship on the hotels as they had not collected these taxes from their customers, and would have to pay these audit fees out of their operating budget in what has been a difficult start of the year for the hospitality industry. 

Positive Resolution
Interim City Manager Andrew Keys and city staff drafted the resolution to include clarifying documents on exactly what was taxable under the ordinance moving forward. The hoteliers had a chance to view the documents prior to the meeting, and Nancy Beckman (CEO of Visit Lodi), communicated that the members she had spoken with were satisfied with the documents and thankful for the clarity. The original resolution did not include the credit for the audit payments, but the Council ultimately amended the resolution to include that credit. The Chamber believes that City Council did the right thing in crediting these payments and ensuring that future audits will be conducted based on a mutual understanding from the city and the hotels on what TOT taxes are to be collected and paid. 

Your Support Mattered
Thank you to those of you who sent letters to Council via the Chamber Lobby Force campaign, and stood behind our local hospitality businesses. Your voice was heard and helped to eventually lead to a positive outcome. Are you interested in becoming part of the Lodi Chamber's Lobby Force efforts to support local business? Email President & CEO JP Doucette at jpdoucette@lodichamber.com and learn how to become part of our amazing team of advocates.