The city of John Day’s third alternative plan for the transient room tax ordinance raised concerns from the Grant County Chamber of Commerce president.

The third proposal would raise the TRT rate, a tax charged on travelers at lodging facilities, to 10% for lodging establishments within the city limits of John Day. The current TRT rate for the county is 8%.

The three options would only apply to operators in the city of John Day and not to other cities in the county. The options previously presented were the city adding its own rate of up to 4% on top of the county’s, or the city replacing the county’s rate with its own 8% rate. The current county rate supports operations at the chamber.

In the new proposal, the 10% would be divided up into three parts: 4% dedicated to the city’s Community Development Fund for tourism and tourism-related facilities; 4% remitted to the Grant County Chamber of Commerce to promote regional tourism; and 2% held in the city’s general fund for general government operations.

The city’s legal counsel is currently reviewing the proposals.

“This is what we decided we would offer, and if it was declined, we decided that we would go after all of it,” said Councilor Steve Schuette.

Grant County Chamber of Commerce President Sherrie Rininger said she is not sure how the chamber board feels about the proposal because they just saw it, but she said she is unhappy and feels like this will open the doors for other cities to do the same. She said she is under the impression that the city cannot override a county ordinance, which the new proposal would do.

“That is going to cause a can of worms, and that will make the chamber go away,” Rininger said. “You got Prairie City spaces, Airbnb’s and all these things all over the place, and if they start pulling theirs, we can’t do our job.”

John Day City Manager Nick Green said the city has been trying to communicate that its needs have not been met when it comes to tourism and tourism-related facilities.

Rininger asked Green when a city representative last came to the chamber for assistance.

“If you need signs for things, if you asked us, we’d be willing to do something like that,” Rininger said.

Green said that’s where he thinks the priorities are diverging between the chamber and the city with the city focusing on infrastructure investment on Main Street.

Reninger said the chamber has a $20,000 line item in its budget set for projects like that this fiscal year.

Another work session will be scheduled between John Day, the chamber and hotel operators on a date to be determined.

“So we’re going to attempt to compromise and find a negotiated agreement,” Green said. “While no one is going to be super happy, we hope that we can achieve some mutually beneficial outcomes. I think part of this conversation is we need to decide what kind of community we are going to be and how we’re going to invest in our mutual priorities, or we will have to go at it alone and that’s not what the council wants to do.”

“That is going to cause a can of worms, and that will make the chamber go away.”

—Sherrie Rininger, Grant County Chamber of Commerce president