Simi Valley City Council Votes to Increase Hotel Bed Tax to 10% : Revenue: The 2% boost goes into effect Oct. 20. The additional funds will be used for local services.

Seeking to boost a lucrative funding source for roads, police and other city services, the Simi Valley City Council is hiking the tax on hotel patrons to the legal limit, despite claims that the increase is unnecessary.

*

The council on Monday voted 3 to 1 to raise the city’s transient occupancy tax from 8% to 10%, the maximum allowed by state law. The new rate will go into effect Oct. 20.

The city last increased the tax in 1986, from 5% to 8%. Since then, the number of hotels in Simi Valley has jumped from one to four and revenue from the bed tax has soared from $20,000 in 1985 to an all-time high of $408,000 in 1992.

Councilwoman Judy Mikels said she favored the increase as a way to help pay for city services without burdening local residents.

By upping the bed tax to 10%, according to a staff report, the city could take in an additional $75,000 to $100,000 a year.

In anticipation of the higher tax, the council in July included the extra revenue when it approved its general fund budget for the current fiscal year.

“I would rather raise it and use those funds to support services so we don’t have to increase other fees,” Mikels said Monday. “I think this is reasonable, compared to what other cities are charging.”

The cities of Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Oxnard, Ojai, Fillmore and Port Hueneme all charge a 10% bed tax. Hotel guests in Camarillo pay a 9% tax and patrons in the unincorporated county area are charged 8%. Moorpark has no hotels and thus no tax. Only Santa Paula charges a lower tax--7%--than Simi Valley’s current rate of 8%.

The increase in the Simi Valley tax will affect all four of the city’s motels and hotels--Motel 6, TraveLodge, the Clarion Hotel and the Radisson Hotel. The hotels charge rates ranging from $36 to $100 a night.

No hotel representatives were present for the public hearing at Monday night’s council meeting.

The lone public testimony came from Steve Frank, a political consultant, who accused the council of needlessly increasing the tax.

“We have the ability to take care of the needs of the city--the roads and police” without a higher bed tax, Frank said. “I find it hard to believe that a council that calls itself fiscally conservative is doing this.”

Councilwoman Sandi Webb, who voted against the increase, agreed.

“This type of tax is definitely inherently unfair,” Webb said. “People who stay in hotels are unrepresented. They don’t live here and they don’t vote here. They are already paying for the city services they use when they eat in our restaurants and buy in our shops.”

Council members Bill Davis and Barbara Williamson joined Mikels in voting for the tax. Mayor Greg Stratton was absent.

Webb said she would have been more inclined to favor the tax if the funds were earmarked specifically for efforts to lure tourists and businesses to the city.

The tax revenue goes into the city’s general fund, which pays for a range of services and programs including city employee salaries, police services and streets and roads.

Frank accused the council of increasing the tax to help cover the $2.55-million cost of the city’s Cultural Arts Center, an expenditure of city funds he strongly opposes.

But John McMillan, the city’s director of general services, said redevelopment funds, not general fund money, are being spent to convert a former church into the new arts center.