Lawton’s recently renewed hotel/motel tax, set to begin being collected May 1, should be managed by those with the greatest vested interested in their use — the people of Lawton.
The stated intention of the City of Lawton Hotel/Transient Guest Tax Ordinance (hotel tax) is to encourage, promote and foster conventions, tourism, industrial development and economic development in the City of Lawton. This is the purpose for which voters approved increasing the hotel tax from 5.5% to 7% and extending the tax’s collection for an additional 10 years. The vote was not even close last February. An astounding 76% of voters approved the measure.
It’s clear Lawton voters want to invest in economic development and improve the City of Lawton. The question is, who is best suited to oversee that investment?
For years, the expenditure of hotel tax funds was the purview of the Lawton Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce. The question as to how these funds were spent was removed from politics and placed with the Chamber. Many cities across Oklahoma and the United States take this same approach to avoid the bureaucracy of elected officials politicizing the decision-making process.
The people of Lawton are the city’s greatest assets. Many of them are members of the Chamber — the most diverse body in Lawton. Its sole mission is to promote commerce within the City. Its members own the businesses and spend and invest the money necessary to keep Lawton prosperous. Like all Lawton voters, they elect councilmembers to represent their interests, and they expect councilmembers to conduct official business in a fair and transparent way.
Chamber members know how best to accomplish the stated mission of the City of Lawton Hotel/Transient Guest Tax Ordinance. It is their mission, too. When they prosper, Lawton prospers. Their business decisions are not subject to the political whims or expediency of candidates or elected officials jockeying for political gain. Their decisions are made based upon what is in the best interest of their businesses with an eye on promoting real economic development within the City of Lawton.
Chamber members were among the 76% of voters who approved the increase and extension of the hotel tax, and virtually every city leader, statesman and elder that spoke on the matter agreed with the Chamber’s management of those funds — everyone except Councilman Jay Burk. Burk seems to see the matter differently. Councilman Burk wants to constrict rather than expand the level of scrutiny and transparency with which hotel tax funds are managed, as illustrated by his recent comments that the council should directly oversee more of the funds.
Burk is certainly not the first to stray from the original intent of the voters regarding how hotel tax funds should be managed or spent, but he is leading the charge to politicize the matter and to weaponize the funds themselves. In 2021, it is simply unacceptable to even entertain the idea that these funds would be spent based upon the political self-interest of a small group of folks sitting around a table in some smoke-filled back room, rather than by the people most directly responsible for Lawton’s economic growth and development.
These funds are meant to promote Lawton — to fill hotel rooms, promote commerce and drive sales tax collections. Who better to accomplish this mission than the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce?
Why would the City Council and, more importantly, Councilman Burk, believe they are better suited to promote commerce than the almost 700 members of the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce?
The Southwest Ledger strongly urges readers to contact their City Council member and demand they vote to disband the Hotel/ Motel Tax Committee and work with the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce to invest hotel tax funds efficiently and transparently.
To Councilman Burk, we say enough is enough. Tax dollars are not smart bombs to be used for political gain. Taxpayers are not pawns to be manipulated for political gain. Now is the time to disband the secret meetings and operate our government in the most transparent way possible.