Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect corrected information.
Visit Durango, the tourism office, cited incomplete information from the city that indicated lodgers tax revenues collected in October were greater than those collected during the same month last year by nearly three times as much.
Rachel Welsh, spokeswoman for Visit Durango, said in a phone call with the The Durango Herald on Friday that last year’s October lodgers tax information was pulled from the city’s website.
The city’s online documents did not factor in a tax hike of 3.25% that voters approved in April 2021.
Welsh, citing the city’s figures, said in an email to the Herald earlier Friday that $181,469 was collected for lodgers tax in October 2021 and $474,510 was collected in October this year.
Including the tax increase’s additional revenue, the city actually collected more lodgers taxes in October 2021 than it did this October, said Tom Sluis, city spokesman. The city collected $476,243 in October last year.
The city’s figure of $181,469 is how much money was available for use; the difference in the final amount collected was embargoed from use due to the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, Sluis said.
Welsh said there was no intent to inflate lodgers tax revenues and she asked the city for clarification on where to get accurate data in the future.
cburney@durangoherald.com
