Information About Measure C

On June 25, 2024, the Turlock City Council placed Measure C on the November 5, 2024 ballot for voter consideration.

Impartial Analysis

The City of Turlock currently imposes a Transient Occupancy Tax on persons ("transients") who stay in hotels in the City for 30 days or less. The tax is imposed at a rate of 9% of the rent charged by the hotel operator. "Hotel" is broadly defined to include any place rented for dwelling, lodging, or sleeping purposes and includes, in addition to traditional hotels and motels, rooms in houses or apartments and entire houses or apartments. The tax is collected by the hotel operator from the transient and remitted to the City.

This measure would authorize the City Council to increase the tax rate to up to 14%, or decrease the tax rate. This measure would extend the obligation to collect and remit the tax to rental agents (online travel companies or other third-party rental agencies) who collect rent from transients for stays in hotels. To ensure that transients who pay through rental agents pay tax at the same rate as transients who directly pay hotels, the calculation of tax would be changed from the amount of rent charged by the hotel operator to the amount of rent charged to the transient.

This measure would clarify that the tax applies to transients renting accessory dwelling units, and that the rent to which the tax applies includes all mandatory charges that must be paid for occupancy, including "resort fees," "cleaning fees," or "reservation fees." This measure would clarify that if a person rents a hotel room for more than 30 days, but allows different people to stay in the room for periods of 30 days or less, that the persons actually staying in the room are transients and rent for their occupancy is subject to tax.

This measure would also make the following changes:

Add an audit provision.
Require hotel operators and rental agents to maintain records for four years and provide that those records will be confidential.
Establish an administrative statute of limitations that is three years when a tax return is filed, five years when no tax return is filed but the hotel is registered, and ten years when no tax return is filed and the hotel is not registered.
Change the interest on delinquent taxes from 0.5% to 1.0% per month.
Change the administrative appeal to be from the Finance Director to the City Manager instead of to the City Council, which would make it easier to maintain the confidentiality of the records of hotels, rental agents, and transients.
Clarify that hotel operators, rental agents, and transients have a right to judicial review.
To be consistent with state law, change the time to submit a refund claim from three years to one and change the time for the City to file an action to collect delinquent taxes from three years to four.

Fiscal Impact

Revenue from this tax measure could be equal to or greater than the current revenue, depending on the rate established by the City Council if the measure is passed. Estimated increase from current revenues at 14% is $1.1 million.

Ballot Question

The following question for the Measure shall appear on the ballot as follows:

Shall the measure to require online travel companies to collect hotel tax from visitors staying at hotels in the City of Turlock and allowing the Turlock City Council to increase the rate of the hotel tax to up to 14% of the rent paid for lodging, with tax proceeds for general government use, raising approximately $1.1 million annually, and lasting until ended by voters, be adopted?	YES
	NO

Measure C will require a simple majority (50% + 1) of the votes cast on the measure to pass.

Measure C - Turlock City Council Resolution No. 2024-105

Information about Measure A