Still have that Lincoln County ballot hanging around the house? Registered voters — there are more than 40,000 in the county — have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to get them back to the clerk’s office in order to have them counted.
Ballots have to be postmarked by the close of the business day Tuesday or be dropped off in special collection boxes located at seven city halls around the county or in the parking lot of the Lincoln County courthouse in Newport.
Voters are deciding two local and one countywide issue in the special election. They are:
- Increasing the lodging tax on approximately 530 vacation rentals, motels and RV parks in unincorporated areas of the county from 10 percent to 12 percent. All voters in the county are deciding this one.
- Some 2,900 voters in the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District are deciding whether to renew a 61 cent levy to support yearly operations for the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District; and
- Voters in the city of Toledo are deciding the fate of a $3.65 million bond to replace the Ammon Road water reservoir and make improvements to the city’s public safety building. The bond carries a tax rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Lincoln County clerk Amy Southwell expects a turnout of 25 to 30 percent in the special election — a small but normal turnout for an off-year election involving just a few issues.
Room tax increase
If approved by all county voters, the room tax rate for motels and vacation rentals in unincorporated areas of Lincoln County would be 12 percent, an increase of two percentage points from the current 10 percent rate.
The new rate would be equal to the lodging taxes charged by the cities of Newport, Lincoln City and Depoe Bay, but would be higher than the 10 percent tax in Waldport and 9 percent in Yachats. But unlike cities, which can raise lodging taxes without asking voters, Lincoln County has to send the issue to the ballot.
The proposed tax increase would affect just over 500 vacation rentals and approximately 30 hotels, motels, condominium complexes, RV parks and parks.
County officials estimate that the increase would raise an additional $568,605 a year with $398,000 of that dedicated to operations and improvements at county parks. The remainder — $170,605 – would go into the county’s general fund for any type of use.
Yachats fire levy
One year after approving a new, larger tax levy for the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District, voters in the district now face the decision of whether to renew a second but much smaller one.
The fire district is asking voters to approve – and renew — a tax levy of 61 cents per $1,000 assessed property value. It’s a levy the district has relied on since 1999 to help fund yearly operations. It was last renewed in 2019.
Property tax payers in the fire district – bills arrived this week — are now seeing the effect of that vote with taxes increasing 11 percent in the Yachats area compared with increases of 3 percent to 4 percent in the rest of the county.
