Wright outlines county benefits of lodging tax

Kenyatta Wright says he owns five companies. Ask him if he’d like free money to market those companies, and he’d be first in line for the windfall.

That’s the message the former Vian, Oklahoma State and NFL football standout tried to convey at the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce monthly membership luncheon Wednesday as he explained the benefits a lodging tax could bring to Sequoyah County.

“That word ‘tax’ causes a lot of problems. Everyone hates that word ‘tax.’ I hate it, too. But we need it, because it’s a line item that our county commissioners can have, not only for beautification, but for tourism. Other than that, there’s no tourism marketing for Sequoyah County,” said Wright, executive director for the Greater Tenkiller Area Association.

“Whenever somebody tells me about a countywide tax that’s gonna help all of us, it’s really, really easy for me to see,” he said.

“Now you wanna talk about Mc-Curtain County? There’s 227 million [annual tourism dollars in 2020]. But for our county, there’s zero, unless Sallisaw’s chamber’s doing it or your business is doing it. There’s no tax dollars that come back to this county at all, and there hasn’t been. There’s a lot of VRBOs [vacation rental by owners] here that are in the county, and there’s a lot of people that stay there. The southern part of Tenkiller has the most VRBOs and Airbnbs. The No. 1 VRBO at Tenkiller, I’m not gonna say the name, but it costs $1,300 a night, and it’s a twonight minimum. She has 95% occupancy, and she says that single VRBO is about $300,000 a year that her business makes. So [if] she’s just paying 4% on that, and it goes to our roads in Sequoyah County, I think that’d be a pretty good thing,” he told chamber members, painting a picture of how lodging tax receipts could be utilized to benefit the county.

But benefits for the county are too often ignored because of the negative connotations associated with taxes.

“This is a tax that [residents] don’t really get taxed unless you stay there. And the reason why I say that, it’s a tourism tax,” Wright emphasized.

“Everyone hates the word ‘tax.’ There’s only 12 of these [lodging tax jurisdictions] in the state of Oklahoma as far as the county goes. That has no affect on what is goin’ on in your town or city area, it’s all in the county, the rural area, which Tenkiller has the most.”

On Thursday, Wright specifically and categorically addressed any concerns that a county lodging tax would result in double taxation for hotels and motels within the city limits already paying Sallisaw’s 5% hotel-motel tax.

“The city hotel tax, it won’t change or be affected or added to,” Wright clarified via telephone Thursday. “The class members would basically be VRBOs, Airbnbs, yurts, things like that in the rural areas or county area, not in the towns or cities that have a hotel-motel tax in place, so they won’t be added. That’s what the confusion was, that they pay 5% now, then they’d be added another 4%. That’s not the case.”

Sallisaw City Manager Keith Skelton could not confirm with any certainty Thursday that Wright’s clarification is correct, but did not dispute his understanding.

“If Kenyatta says that’s the way they’re proceeding on it, then I would take his word on it,” Skelton said via telephone Thursday. “I know it’s been discussed, but I can’t really answer that until we see the wording in the ballot, because we are part of the county. When the county passes its sales tax, that county tax also applies to the city limits of Sallisaw as well.

“But if that’s the avenue they’re proceeding, I’m sure Kenyatta’s right,” Skelton said. “They may very well answer all those questions before they put the ballot together. I’d just have to see how the conversation goes and what the final ballot would be to determine if [the county lodging tax] will apply to our hotels in the city limits.”

Skelton also said there are VRBOs and Airbnbs currently operating within the city limits, and the current 5% city lodging tax applies to them as it does to hotels and motels.

“We are getting some remittance from them,” Skelton said of the VRBOs. He also said discussions are planned to evaluate wording in the city ordinance to ensure how the city lodging tax should be applied.

Therefore, according to Wright’s understanding, the proposed county lodging tax would only apply to hospitality venues within the county but outside city limits.

“If they’re in the county, like if they’re at Tenkiller,” Wright said Thursday, “but not existing or motels that are in the cities or towns. If Tenkiller was building a lodge, it would get categorized — if it had over a certain amount of rooms — as a hotel or motel, and that would count. But existing or hotels, motels inside Sallisaw or Muldrow or Gore, inside their city limits, those don’t count.”

The conversation of a county lodging tax became a hot-button issue at the Oct. 3 County Commissioners meeting when Wright and representatives from Cherokee County and Tahlequah briefed the commissioners on the impact of such a tax.

“As soon as we said this a few months ago, wildfire happened. It went out in the newspaper, everybody’s calling me, they’re thinking that you’re gonna get taxed 9% because you stay at some VRBO at Tenkiller,” Wright recalled.

“We don’t even have it, so you’re not getting taxed,” he said he told those who confronted him in the wake of the October presentation.

But he is still committed to seeing the question through to a decision by the commissioners and, ultimately, county voters.

“The last 15 months, Cherokee County has received $181,000 for their lodging tax. The chamber and Tour Tahlequah manage the tax dollars that come back, along with the county commissioners, but 75% of the money they receive is going to marketing Cherokee County, which is the [Illinois] river, some parts of [Lake] Tenkiller. Their first month of collection was actually August of last year, and they received $15,000. That money helped us in our beautification plan that we call Tidy Up Tenkiller,” Wright explained.

“We know right now that we have a lot of tourists that come through our area. But guess what? They’re ghosts. Because no one really sees the impact. The only number that we have is from 2020. They’ve had two consecutive years where there’s been 5% to 8% increase on tourism in Sequoyah County, and we don’t have the numbers. I’m gonna tell you what the numbers are for Sequoyah County in 2020. For tourism, it was 91 million dollars for travelers who came to this area for Sequoyah County. That was the gross. Now the net spend was 28 million, that’s money that stayed here in our county. So that’s a lot of money. But that’s not even touching the surface of what has come here in 2021 [and 2022]. Those tax dollars aren’t going to Vian or Sallisaw, they’re not going anywhere. They’re goin’ in somebody’s pocket.”

And Wright, who owns a convenience store at Sunset Corner in Spiro, has seen firsthand the influx of tourism — and potential tax dollars — to the area.

“The largest grossing area is right south of us,” he told his Sallisaw audience. “I talked to the area director. They have 220,000 dollars a month to promote the businesses. Wouldn’t you like to have that at the chamber? And that’s just coming from their VRBO tax.

“LeFlore and Sequoyah, guess what we are? The gateway. Because all those people from the north — all of them stop at Sunset Corner, that’s how I know. We’re the gateway. Sequoyah and LeFlore County’s the gateway. So I’ve been talking to them. How do we work together? How can we work with LeFlore County? The traffic numbers from the north to the south goin’ to Broken Bow, any given weekend in the summer, is like 26,000 cars going by my corner. Four years ago, it was 13,000. We’re the gateway. So these people are comin’ through Sequoyah County. How we gonna get ’em to stop? The only way to share that is through partners, and to share where our businesses aren’t payin’ for marketing.”

Then he reiterated what he believes is the single issue that is a stumbling block for county residents to embrace the proposed tax.

“It’s really made for people who are visiting here. It’s not the local person actually having to pay for a tax, somebody else’s taxes. It’s for the people who stay, and the people who travel here,” he repeated for the chamber members, then emphasized that working toward a common goal is imperative.

“There’s a lot of people in our county, when you hear the word ‘tax,’ they’re gonna try to drive it out. No matter what. I don’t see any progression in any other manner other than us gettin’ our hands dirty a little bit and tryin’ to get together and work together — Vian, Sallisaw, Muldrow, Gore — everybody in the county workin’ together for a common goal. We need to work together.

“I think we can do something together where we’re all workin’ together for one common goal, and that’s a better Sequoyah County. Let’s get our schools better, let’s get our communities better and let’s get our county better. This tax helps that. And it’s money that is not coming out of our pocket. It’s money coming out of tourists’ pocket. And they’re lovin’ paying it, and I bet they probably visited Branson,” he said, drawing chuckles as he referenced the Missouri resort city’s 14% lodging tax.

For a county lodging tax to be implemented, county commissioners would have to present approved language for voter approval.

“Now our county commissioner board, they’re gonna wait. They’ve got to wait to get it set up, make sure it’s what our county needs before they can bring it before a vote of the people. We were hoping it would be in February, but it’s not. So we’re gonna wait for the perfect timing from them, ’cause they have to sign it, and they have to say it’s OK,” Wright said.

“We’re losing out, regardless, and it may be a year from now before we’re able to vote for it, but I want you to educate yourself. Don’t just hear the word ‘tax’ and think that, ‘Ugh, my taxes are gonna raise.’ Because the biggest lie that I heard is that, if we passed it, our property taxes are gonna go up. It’s not.

“What we have to do is educate and inform our public, because once they hear ‘tax,’ they’re gonna vote ‘no,’ even if they’re not informed,” he said.

Then Wright left his audience with a three-word challenge: “Let’s work together.”

In other business at the luncheon meeting, a list of upcoming events was highlighted, including:

• Community Thanksgiving dinner 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 23 at Sallisaw Middle School. The community is asked to donate desserts for the meal.

• Farmers Market Christmas market 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 10

• Christmas parade is 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10

• Chamber banquet/Evviva is Feb. 4

Member of the month

The Sallisaw Pastors Fellowship was honored Wednesday as the Sallisaw Chambers of Commerce’s Member of the Month for November.

Although it has been called by many other names such as an alliance or a coalition, for almost 30 years the members have remained faithful to the vision of the founders which was for community ministries to fellowship together at times regardless of, but also with respect for, denominational differences. The fellowship has worked as one, not just within church walls, but in the community as well.

The fellowship is involved in two major campaigns: • A back-to-school outreach that provides gift cards to 170 teachers and 100 support staff to purchase needed classroom items

• A Christmas outreach to provides more than 150 area families with a meal basket and more than 280 children with gifts