Comments on: Sedona House Fire Causes Heavy Damage

By: State of Emergency Declared in CA Wild Fire Areas

State of Emergency Declared in CA Wild Fire Areas — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 14:50:24 +0000

State of Emergency Declared for Wildfires in California August 3, 2015

The governor of California has issued a State of Emergency due to wildfires. The areas impacted include:

Napa
San Diego
San Bernadino

By: hoo hoo

hoo hoo — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:46:20 +0000

Really entertaining. You all went from property taxes to bed taxes.

Property taxes, income taxes, sales tax and bed taxes are all different tax monsters.

Flashback- Lodging asked the city to raise the bed tax. The begged for the city to give it to the chamber. Lodging wants to share those visitor taxes with the entire region. The tourists pay itanyway, pennies on the dollar.

Factually don’t forget every night a room is sold bed tax and sales tax is charged on the cost of the room. Heard Sedona (city) is the highest in the state.

Sorry you got what you asked for? hehe 1.5 million of city collected taxes are given without transparency to a regional chamber. Gosh what’s the total given to chamber 12 million? You got what you asked for. Now you bear the burden of marketing the region. That is how it is done in Sedona.

Hoo hoo!

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 04:18:37 +0000

The hotel bed tax in Sedona is an additional 3.50%.

By: truth be told

truth be told — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 03:47:09 +0000

@Good Point – Please get your facts straight! A hotel Does contribute way more in taxes than a commercial building! If ya just want to talk about “property taxes” that’s one thing but the reality is our “in city of Sedona” hotels are required to collect and pay – what is it?….4% in the name of Bed Taxes? Call me crazy but I don’t recall any commercial business having to collect that much more tax over the current rates?

@Commercial Owner – Come on buddy and think this through! Sedona Hotels do pay additional fees based upon guests! They collect and pay it through the B&B Tax our city Requires all in order to find free money to support the Regional Chamber etc.

By: Commerical Owner

Commerical Owner — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:50:24 +0000

I own commerical property in both AZ & CALI. I pay a percent of the value. I charge my tenants sales tax for Sedona at 3% for the city of Sedona. Hotels do not pay additional fees based on guests.

By: Good Point

Good Point — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 21:36:42 +0000

Commercial property taxes are based on the county assessor value placed on that property. There is no difference for a hotel, shopping center, or other commercially zoned property. They ALL pay a percentage of the assets amount. The county Assessor’s Office can explain that. Please give them a call.

So based off that a hotel does not contribute any more that a shopping center in regards to property taxes. Tourists are only paying when they rent a room via paying the taxes subject to the area they are staying. Some resorts do impose “resort fees” which go directly to the hotel and not to county, state or city.

By: ESM

ESM — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 16:30:19 +0000

Sorry, but just can’t resist relating this little story. On a Christmas Day while we were living in Woodland Hills, CA, a neighbor’s roof caught fire. While waiting for the fire department to arrive, fortunately concerned citizens took matters into their own hands and with garden hoses and creative thinking contained the fire. Lucky thing. It took over an hour for “a” fire department to arrive. It seems there was a dispute. Since it was a “holiday” was it the responsibility of the City of Los Angeles or County of Los Angeles to respond? And you all think we have problems here?

On another note, many years ago the house next door to us in Sedona “mysteriously” caught fire during the middle of the night. That fire did make RRN headlines, although the home wasn’t burned to the ground. It was the volunteers back in the day who dowsed that blaze and stayed on scene until well after sun-up. The smoke rose to SR179 making visibility so poor the equipment had to be “walked in” on Morgan Road. Watching flames shoot sky high at 2:00 AM in this highly wooded area gives me chills to this day.
Oddly enough this occurred shortly after the neighbors collectively donated to have our one and only fire hydrant installed. There were only two people who declined to contribute. The man who owned the house that caught fire was one of them.

Anyhow, great job back then and the obvious point being made relating to the additional need for Fire District services due to increased tourism is very valid.

By: Did you forget???

Did you forget??? — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 15:12:34 +0000

@Good Point & @Less Lookin

Over all most tourists stay at some sort of lodging. Each and every LEGAL lodging business pays way more COUNTY property tax then any house in this city. It makes most sense that the LEGAL lodging business is passing along those taxes to the tourists in the room fees. IMO, that’s how the tourist pays their share as well. If any of you posters have ever stayed in a legal lodging business, you would remember that on top of the room fee you were charged a host of fees the biggest ones ARE TAXES!

By: steve Segner

steve Segner — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 15:10:22 +0000

Good point said:
Due to the tourists! Tourists cost us residents more in taxes.

Did the new fire station go in the Chapel area because the Tourists wanted it?
Hotels pay a huge amount to the fire dist., much more then home owners, before you make a statement please show us where you get your facts,
steve

By: Good Point

Good Point — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 14:16:43 +0000

Another great point @Jess Lookin. That 15,000,000 is paid by the PROPERTY owners for the fire department.
Yep you all pay property taxes to support the schools and Fire Department. Double or tripled is the size and budget of the fire department due to the tourists! Tourists cost us resisdents more in taxes.
The scanner is a great idea @Oh Really? Then everyone can hear how the tourists increase our other services like the police department. I keep my scanner on, it provides me with first hand info.