Mayor G.T. Bynum and the Tulsa City Council love to raise taxes and fees to grow government and they are experts at disguising the impact.

The latest salvo of taxation is a “tourism improvement district.” This tax scheme would raise an additional $2,300,000.00 a year by increasing the cost of hotel stays.

This scheme mandates that hotels with 110 or more rooms would be charged an extra 3 percent tax on nightly stays. Of course, visitors to Tulsa would pay that tax.

The city gets 2 percent of the new tax while the other 1 percent goes to “VisiTulsa” – a nebulous creation that appears to have no public accountability. If you look hard at these “initiatives” you will see the overlords of the chamber of commerce. VisiTulsa is part of the Tulsa Regional (not city) Chamber.

For years, the chamber has grabbed most of Tulsa’s hotel/motel tax and spent it with virtually no level of accountability. Their contract with the city is never put out to bid and no councilor would dare challenge how that money is spent. The chamber is a private group and their budget is hidden from public view.

Here’s what this boils down to. Raise taxes and give more money to the chamber to spend however they wish. What a sweet deal. Tulsa’s lodging tax is 13.52 percent when you add in state and county charges. This new tax raises that to 16.52 percent. So a $100 a night hotel room will now cost $116.52.

Higher taxes and less accountability – that’s the legacy of this mayor and council.