Alva Review-Courier -

Amendments to the hotel tax ordinance were finally approved in a special meeting of the Alva City Council Thursday. This was the third time the matter appeared on a city council agenda.

Just enough councilmembers attended to make a quorum, five out of eight. Present were Greg Bowman, Joe Parsons, Sadie Bier, Gail Swallow and Garrett Lahr.

Mayor Kelly Parker opened discussion on Ordinance 2023-001, which amends the hotel tax to provide for the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) to begin collecting the tax monthly. Up to this date, the taxes have been collected quarterly by the City of Alva.

The change was requested by the Alva Tourism Tax Committee many months ago. They believe the OTC will be better able to collect the tax on a timely basis.

Councilmember Daniel Winters was not present for the meeting, but he raised objections about the lack of clarity in defining a permanent resident in the ordinance amendment. City Business Manager Steve Ford forwarded Winters’ email to the OTC. The wording of the amendment was changed in the definition of sleeping accommodations subject to the tax to add “not occupied by permanent resident.”

In the definitions section, the following sentence was also inserted: Permanent resident is a lessor of an apartment or home that is not sales taxed due to landlord and tenant statutes.

Having been provided with this information, the council members had little to discuss. Bier made a motion to approve the amended ordinance with Bowman providing a second. The motion carried 5-0.

As with sales tax, the OTC charges a small fee for collecting the tax. They will keep five percent of the hotel taxes collected and remit the remainder to the City of Alva.