By Melanie Rossi
Contributing Writer
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Area Room Tax Commission oversees the collection of hotel room tax and partners with Discover Green Bay to promote tourism in the area and will now be joined by a second room tax commission to service the surrounding area.
Started in 1997, the Green Bay Area Room Tax Commission involves the local municipalities of Allouez, Ashwaubenon, Howard, De Pere, Green Bay, Bellevue and Suamico.
According to Jason Hager, chairman of the Green Bay Area Room Tax Commission, its goal is “to ensure that room tax is being collected, hotels are reporting the taxes, that funding is flowing through according to where it’s been committed — it’s kind of an oversight commission.”
The commission partners with Discover Green Bay, which works with the commission to market the Green Bay area municipalities and promote its tourism.
“Discover Green Bay is the one that goes out and brings events to the city, brings conferences to the city and does the marketing for tourism promotion for our area,” Hager said.
Part of the Green Bay Area Room Tax Commission’s job is ensuring the correct allocation of funds raised through the room tax.
“The room tax commission is charged with making sure that the room taxes are collected by the municipalities that have them in place, and then those funds are passed through according to how the commission and the municipalities have allocated the funding,” Hager said. “A lot of the room tax funds — the tax that’s being collected — is being used to pay for locations such as the Resch Expo Center that was just built, the KI Convention Center that’s downtown, and then a portion of the room tax collection funds are used to fund Discover Green Bay.”
The commission also oversees the Green Bay area’s Airbnbs and short term rentals, working with homeowners interested in renting their homes by guiding them through the permitting and safety processes.
While the Green Bay Area Room Tax Commission has a wide reach in the area, a second room tax commission was recently formed.
With many funds from the Green Bay area commission already allocated to certain construction projects and Discover Green Bay, the second room tax commission in the area, the Bay Area Room Tax Commission, works with some of the area’s outlying municipalities to create their own ordinances.
Hager said, “In the last year, some of our outlying suburb municipalities, such as the town of Scott and Wrightstown, have been working with short-term rentals and have been working on finding ways to establish room tax ordinances, govern short-term rentals, and as a result of that, we’ve created a second room tax commission, called the Bay Area Room Tax Commission, that involves a lot of our surrounding municipalities that are not part of the original commission.”
The room tax rate in the Green Bay area is 10%, and the room tax for municipalities covered by the Bay Area Tax Commission is 8%.
For the residents of the Green Bay Area, the work done by both room tax commissions allows for the benefits associated with the tourism industry, especially because of their partnership with Discover Green Bay.
“The benefit is that we’re promoting Green Bay as a destination, and we’re promoting our tourism to Green Bay and all of our surrounding municipalities,” Hager said. “So basically it’s to market, promote and service our area as a destination and partner through strategies and different ways to be supportive to the tourism industry, encourage repeat visitors, tell the Green Bay area story and those types of things, so that’s what Discover Green Bay does on our behalf.”
By maintaining consistent oversight over the area’s hotel room tax, the Green Bay Area Room Tax Commission helps in making Green Bay a desirable event destination.