City of The Dalles ordinance will increase Council’s control of room tax
File Photo - The Rayland Hotel, seen here last fall, is one of many local hotels and lodgings that bring in about $1.5 million annually to the City of The Dalles. That revenue will likely do nothing but increase in as inflation, travel and contract work in our area remain heavy in the year to come. City Councilors will vote tonight to officially codify their greater control of those revenues.
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., March 9, 2026 — The Dalles City Council will consider changes on how it distributes its transient lodging tax, a revenue stream that generated about $1.45 million during the 2024–25 fiscal year and helps fund tourism promotion and other city priorities, according to city staff reports.
The meeting starts tonight, March 9, at 5:30 p.m. at council chambers, 313 Court Street. Watch it live here.
Under Oregon law, 55.4 percent of lodging tax revenue must be spent on tourism promotion. In The Dalles, that amounts to roughly $803,000 annually based on recent collections. The city currently contracts with The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce for $465,000 to manage tourism marketing and visitor promotion, however they will be submitting a new budget in weeks to come.
That leaves the remaining share of the tax — about $647,000 annually based on recent collections — can be spent at the City Council’s discretion on city services or infrastructure. According to city background materials, that flexibility has become more significant.
In the run up to this ordinance change, the city ended a decades-old formula that automatically directed a portion of the tax to Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation.
Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation previously received about $320,000 annually from lodging tax proceeds under a standing allocation created decades earlier.
The city later removed that automatic distribution and then later gave the parks $150,000 annually in free city water service. Parks also recently recived $97,500 in payments tied to Google-related fees, bringing the district’s replacement funding to about $247,500 - about $72,500 short of its former tax allocation.
Without the guaranteed share of lodging tax revenue, any additional support for the parks district must now be requested through the city’s annual budget process.
County tax information also shows a very strong chance that the fifth data center under construction in the Port of The Dalles will likely generate an additional $97,500 annually in payments to the parks district, further offsetting the loss of the previous lodging tax allocation. Those set google fee amounts, however, are not tied to the rate of inflation, but rather are capped and will have less buying power as time elapses.
Redeveloping
In addition to the lodging tax ordinance, councilors will hear a presentation on the city’s Brownfield Revitalization program, funded through a $500,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant intended to identify and assess potentially contaminated properties for redevelopment.
According to the city presentation materials, environmental assessments have already been conducted or initiated at several sites, including the Tony’s Building property, the Gloria Center, 515 East Second Street and the Vogt Opera House, as the city evaluates opportunities to reuse underutilized or environmentally constrained properties.
Consent Agenda
The council’s consent agenda also includes two nuisance abatement resolutions placing liens on properties where the city removed violations after property owners failed to comply with cleanup notices.
One assessment seeks to recover $2,200 in cleanup costs from a property at 2315 East Second Street after the city hired a contractor to remove junk and dog feces from the site, according to the city staff report.
The council is also scheduled to enter executive session to discuss labor negotiations. Any decisions would occur after the council reconvenes in open session.
The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the City Hall Council Chamber, 313 Court St., and will also be livestreamed on the city’s website.
