Nov. 12, the Summit County Council finally voted for the sales tax Councilmember Chris Robinson says leaders have wanted to impose for at least 15 years.
It’s called the “impacted communities” sales tax, formerly the “resort communities” tax. Click here for more information.
“We have resort impacts, same as Park City, but we don't have this tool,” Robinson said. “So I'm very much in favor of it.”
It was previously only available to cities, but Summit County successfully lobbied for access to it during the 2025 legislative session.
“We wrote this so narrowly, there's only one county in the entire state that can use it,” Deputy Civil Attorney Dave Thomas told the council.
The council voted 4-1 to impose the full 1.1% tax rate. It applies only to unincorporated areas, not cities or towns, and exempts groceries, prescriptions and gas.
The council debated a range of values from 0.5% to 1.1% and chose the latter because it also authorized $99 million in bonds Nov. 12.
The tax will pay for the bonds, and Chief Financial Officer Matt Leavitt explained bonds backed with more revenue are more attractive to purchasers — who therefore charge the county a lower interest rate.
The 1.1% tax kicks in next summer and will bring in about $17 million annually. It brings up the unincorporated sales tax rate to 8.75% compared to Park City’s 9.55%.
Summit County must pay off its new bonds within 21 years.
Council Vice Chair Canice Harte was the dissenting vote, citing the new districts state lawmakers sorted him and his colleagues into this fall.
“The members of the [Snyderville] Basin who will bear the brunt of most of this tax would not like to have another sales tax put on right after having the emergency services sales tax,” he said. “So as a representative of District 5, I'm going to be voting against this.”
Councilmembers Roger Armstrong and Tonja Hanson didn't think the tax was targeted.
“On an aggregate basis of population, there are more people spending money in one part of the county than another. It doesn't compare with the visitor base,” Armstrong said. “But everybody is going to shoulder this to some degree, given your economic status, and feel it more or less than others.”
The county’s current estimate is that visitors and nonresidents account for more than 60% of sales tax revenue.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
