Vail voters have rejected a plan by local leaders to tax the town’s 2,600 short-term rental properties to pay for attainable housing.
It was a very close vote. On Nov. 17, Eagle County finished counting and curing ballots and the lodging tax measure was defeated by 35 votes, with 916 “no” votes versus 881 “yes” votes. Early results for Ballot Issue 2A on Nov. 4 showed a slightly larger number of voters rejecting a 6% excise tax on rental income from short-term rentals to help pay for workforce housing.
The new tax would have raised the town’s lodging tax for short-term rental properties — not hotels — to 16.8%, up from 10.8%.
Town staff estimated the new tax would generate about $7.2 million a year to fund housing in and around town. The measure was supported by the town council and housing advocates and opposed by managers of condotels — condominium complexes with privately owned short-term rentals in a building that operates like a hotel — who argued they were being unfairly singled out by the proposal because traditional hotels were not subject to the tax.