Visitors planning to stay at a Jefferson County hotel or motel can rest easy knowing they won’t have to pay an additional “bed tax” any time soon.
On Aug. 12, the County Council voted against placing a question on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, which if approved would have added a 5 percent tax to all stays at hotels or motels in unincorporated Jefferson County.
The revenue from the tax would have gone to the Jefferson County Tourism Commission, the county’s Destination Marketing Organization (DMO).
The council voted 3-2 against putting the issue on the ballot. Council members Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto), Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) and Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) voted against it, and Lori Arons (District 3, Imperial) and Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) voted in favor of it. Gene Barbagallo (District 2, Imperial) abstained from the vote.
Scott Seek (District 5, Festus), who proposed the countywide bed tax at an earlier work session, said he was moving his daughter into her college dorm and was unable to attend the meeting.
He called the vote against placing the bed tax question on the ballot a missed opportunity.
“I’m absolutely disappointed,” Seek said. “The people who voted no and who abstained don’t want the people of Jefferson County to have a voice. I want (the council) to realize how ridiculous it is not to let the people of the county vote, as is their right, to see if they would like to have a bed tax that would absolutely be great for the county.”
At the June 3 work session, Seek said a countywide bed tax would bring in an estimated $119,000 a year for the Tourism Commission from what he believes is the only hotel in an unincorporated area of the county – the Holiday Inn Timber Creek Resort near De Soto.
As the county grows and more hotels are constructed, tax revenue would increase, he said.
Seek said the revenue would allow the Tourism Commission to promote more local attractions and events to people outside the county.
Seek said when he took a trip last year to Kansas City with his daughter and wife to attend a Taylor Swift concert, he saw the bed tax put into action. Kansas City has imposed a 7.5 percent tax on overnight stays.
“I’ll admit, I am a Swiftie,” Seek said. “She was able to single-handedly boost the tax revenue for Kansas City. I paid (the bed tax), and everybody else did, too. You can imagine the amount of money their tourism commission got at that time.”
Arnold, Pevely and Festus are the only cities in the county to collect a hotel-motel tax.
According to Arnold city documents, its Tourism Commission typically receives about $200,000 annually from its 5 percent tax on hotel and motel stays. The five-member commission uses the revenue to sponsor city events like Arnold Days and to award grants to community groups to hold events that bolster tourism in the city.
The Festus Tourism Commission recently awarded 18 grants totaling $201,408, including $12,000 to the Spotlight Community Theatre group and $10,000 to pickleball enthusiast Jim Berger for various tournaments to be held in 2025 at the Jim & Michelle Berger Pickleball Courts in Festus. The commission funds its grants with revenue from the city’s 5 percent hotel-motel tax.
Sharon Floyd, executive director of the Jefferson County Tourism Commission, said the board was “disheartened” by the County Council’s decision.
She said there needs to be more awareness about the benefits of a countywide bed tax, adding that the commission will renew its efforts to get the issue placed on a future ballot.
“It would have been nice if the County Council would have been able to put (the bed tax) on the ballot for the people to make a vote, but I think we still need to get more of these decisions out there to our residents to understand that this is a transient tax that would not be on our residents themselves,” Floyd said. “We are looking at sustainable income, and this would have been the way to do that.”
The Jefferson County Tourism Commission, founded in 2021 as an offshoot of the Jefferson County Growth Association, is overseen by a seven-member board of directors: president Tom Polesel, vice president Rob Schneider, secretary Mark Russell, treasurer Don Bolinger, David Hovis, Rhonda Gerstner and Andy Hixson.
The opposing view
At the Aug. 12 council meeting, Tullock said he had no qualms with letting county residents vote for a bed tax, but he took issue with allowing the Tourism Commission to receive the tax revenue.
“If it’s approved, I would be surprised if the voters knew that Jefferson County Tourism Commission wasn’t actually part of Jefferson County, but a separate entity,” he said. “I’ve got a little bit of a problem with allowing a third party to receive funds without going through or being approved in any way by the County Council, so I will not be supporting this one.”
County Counselor Jalesia F.M. Kuenzel said the proposed legislation followed the state statute on tourism commissions, which requires that the tax revenue go to a tourism commission.
“If you do not do what the state statute does, there are very severe penalties for that,” she said. Kuenzel said the County Council does have a say in how the bed tax revenue is used because it previously entered into a contract with the Tourism Commission.
In 2021, the County Council passed a resolution to approve the Jefferson County Tourism Commission as the county’s DMO, making the commission responsible for the promotion and marketing of travel and tourism in the county. The resolution included the commission’s bylaws.
According to the resolution, the commission is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation, and was formed “with the intent of becoming a DMO for Jefferson County.”
Floyd said various community interests are well-represented on the Tourism commission, adding that two of the board members are appointed by the Jefferson County Growth Association; one is selected by and represents all the municipalities in the county; one member is appointed by the county executive and the remaining three members are appointed by existing members and represent wineries/breweries, hotels and restaurants. The commission also has an advisory board that can seat up to 11 members.
Seek said Tullock’s complaint about a lack of council oversight is just an excuse to vote no on the bill.
“I am calling (Tullock) a liar. He knew better than that, and yet, he just didn’t want to say that,” Seek said. “Jalesia tried to explain that to (the council), but they’re too set or hard-headed in their ways to understand what the reasoning is and that the reasoning is built by the state. We are following the rules of the state, and they’re trying to rewrite the rules that they’re not allowed to rewrite. It’s asinine that they would try to say, ‘Oh, there’s no oversight for that.’ There’s absolutely oversight.”
Barbagallo, who abstained from the vote, echoed Tullock’s concerns about a lack of County Council control over the Tourism Commission, adding that he needed more clarification from Seek before he felt prepared to vote yes.
“I was concerned that the representative who presented that wasn’t at the meeting,” Barbagallo said. “That was bothering me. He could explain in detail better what his proposal was. Be that he wasn’t there, I had to go off what (the ordinance) exactly said.”
Seek also said the Jefferson County Tourism Commission operates like other tourism commissions across the state.
St. Charles County, for example, has a 5 percent tax on stays at hotels and motels; St. Louis County has two fees on all lodging facilities – a 3.75 percent convention and tourism tax benefitting the Convention and Visitors Commission, and the 3.5 percent convention and sports tax used to pay for tourism infrastructure, such as the Dome at America’s Center.
Next steps
Both Floyd and Seek said they would revisit the bed tax issue.
However, Seek said it would be impossible to get the proposal passed with the current council members, so perhaps, next year, a new bed tax proposal could be presented for council discussion.
Seek said the Aug. 12 meeting was the last chance the council had to approve legislation to put a measure on the Nov. 5 ballot.
He said he wanted the bed tax question on the November general election ballot because, statistically, more voters turn out when there is a presidential election, and more voices could be included in the decision.
“This was the opportunity for this council to do something right, and they did it wrong,” Seek said. “This is normal for the Jefferson County Council, too. It’s normal for the Jefferson County Council to do something wrong when they could be doing it right.
“Maybe in January, we can talk about it, depending on what the council looks like, but this one is a complete failure and a real embarrassment to the state of Missouri.”