Measure Allowing Bed Tax Hike OKd

Only months after voters in Agoura Hills struck down a utility tax that was imposed by the City Council, they approved an ordinance allowing the council to raise the city’s transient occupancy tax.

Measure L allows the City Council to increase the hotel bed tax from 8% to not more than 12%. The measure passed on Tuesday with 4,964 yes votes, or 67.1%, and 2,434, or 32.9%, no votes.

The results do not include absentee ballots.

Measure L was introduced last summer in an attempt to recoup losses suffered when the 1994 utility users tax was repealed by voters in June.

Councilwoman Louise Rishoff said she was delighted with the outcome of Tuesday’s vote because the increased bed tax rate could bring in more than $100,000 annually to the city. The city would collect an estimated $38,000 for each percentage point the tax is increased.

“This simply allows us to bring ourselves up to parity with our neighbors,” she said.

The city’s bed tax has not been raised since the mid-1980s, while neighboring cities have brought theirs to levels between 10% to 14%.

At least one member of the council was less than enthusiastic about the decision.

“I think this says people are confident letting the council make that particular decision,” said Mayor Ed Corridori. “And it says this is a tax they were willing to accept, possibly because it more than likely does not affect them directly.”

Connie Fairbanks, general manager of the Radisson Hotel, the only hotel in the city, said she would not comment on the ordinance until the council decides how it will be implemented.

Rishoff said she will ask that a hearing to decide the tax increase be scheduled at the next available council meeting. She will ask that the council impose a 12% tax.

“Every month that we wait, we’re losing revenue,” she said.