Lodging tax revenue increasing rapidly

BOISE - State revenue from Idaho's 2 percent lodging tax has been "climbing very rapidly," Idaho Department of Commerce Director Jeffery Sayer told state budget writers Monday.

Sayer later focused on numbers from Commerce showing that six-month state lodging tax revenues ending in December 2013 eclipsed the room tax revenue collected in the same six-month span a year earlier by 8 percent.

Lodging tax collection numbers for the first six months of state budget year 2014 - ending Dec. 31, 2013 - came in at $5 million, compared with $4.6 million in the six-month time frame ending Dec. 31, 2012.

"So, we're seeing significant growth here, and we're excited about that," Sayer told members of the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

Lodging tax receipts for last August reached $1.1 million, Commerce numbers show, compared to roughly $1 million for August 2012.

"It's something we keep an eye on," Sayer said in an interview. "And, to me, it's kind of a leading indicator of where the economy's going, because it represents just general travel activity in the state.

"And to see that increasing that quickly to me is a really good sign," he added.