I ask that our county assessor and board re-consider the vacation rental decision published in the Jan. 4 issue of the paper. I’m personally not against vacation rentals and understand how someone would like their vacation property to be able to pay for itself when they aren’t using it. However, 183 nights of rental use is way too much to not be considered commercial use. For instance, I know of one that rents for approximately $400/night. $400 per night multiplied by 183 nights equals over $73,000/year (assuming it’s filled 183 nights in a 365-day year which is very possible). That’s substantially more than one would be spending on expenses and mortgage combined. That means it’s essentially a business.
I fully appreciate the position stated by some of our large rental organizations mentioned, but these are costs that will be passed on to the renter, not absorbed by the company. This additional tax is basically similar to the Cook County sales taxes we charge to spread costs onto the tourists. Sales tax hasn’t driven away tourists, so I doubt the commercial tax will either. We keep hearing the drum beat of no affordable housing; it won’t get better if we keep allowing prices to be driven up by housing being transitioned into vacation rentals.
We need to consider options such as: taxing all rental days at a commercial rate, or a commercial tax rate based on quarters (3,6,9, or 12 months at commercial rate) or perhaps a new tax rate for vacation rentals below the commercial rate and above the residential rate, or something else. The revenue from the tax should offset the cost of tracking the rentals, or perhaps, increase license fees to cover the administrative costs. Finally, we need to consider the effect these vacation rentals have on neighbors. A constant influx of different people causes a lot of stress for entire neighborhoods. We need to consider zoning changes to include/ exclude vacation rentals from particular areas/ neighborhoods. I am confident there’s a good number of property owners/voters in the county who agree.
Daniel Kort, Lutsen
Leave a Reply