Williston’s City Commission has passed a 1 percent tax on lodging and restaurants that could be used to pay for a convention center or a downtown parking garage.
City commissioners said the tax should generate $1.2 million a year.
Commissioners have looked to additional taxes to fund some projects because the city is spending more than 90 percent of its sales tax receipts to pay down a $141 million debt.
Williston in March opened a $76 million state-of-the-art recreation center that was funded by a 1 percent sales tax hike voters approved for the Parks and Recreation Department in 2011.The city also needs to institute a city truck tax.
"X" sales receipts times 1% = $1.2 million. Solve for "X."
I can't keep track of all the zeros, but:
1,200,000 / 0.01 -- add two more zeroes to and one gets: 120,000,000.
So, perhaps, if the zeroes are correct, that works out to $120 million/year in lodging "fees" in Williston.
At $120/night = a million night-rooms / 365 nights = 2,700 rooms. Sounds about right.
For the tourist, add another $1.20 to your nightly bill. Would 5% been too much to ask? An extra $6/night for the privilege of visiting Boomtown USA?
This was back in 2011:
Williams County recorded more than $550.6 million of taxable sales and purchases in the first quarter.$500 million x four quarters = $1 billion in ALL taxable sales in all of Williams County. One percent of one billion is $10 million, which means about 8 years to pay for the new recreation center at that rate. It's very possible that maintaining wells will result in more taxable sales and purchases than drilling wells. Roughnecks are pretty much forced to eat their meals on site when on the rig; folks maintaining rigs will be driving back and forth, stopping at restaurants along the way. A lot of the drilling equipment probably comes from out of state; a lot of recurring maintenance items (think nuts and bolts) will be bought locally.