On this day of love, cities have a lot of love for a proposal that we have been requesting for years—an excise tax on short-term rentals, which impact our housing supply, solely for local governments to fund housing needs in their community.

HB 1763, sponsored by Rep. Lisa Parshley (D–Olympia), would do the following:

• Adds six percent excise tax on short-term rental lodging advertised through a web platform
• Creates an Essential Affordable Housing Local Assistance Account in which the revenue is deposited
• Local governments receive the revenue generated in their jurisdiction
• Authorized expenditures include operating and capital costs of affordable housing programs including, but not limited to, homeless housing assistance, temporary shelters, and other related services, or housing infrastructure projects

HB 1763 also imposes several requirements on the jurisdiction to access the funding. Please let us know if any of these pose a concern for your jurisdiction.

Date to remember

HB 1763 is scheduled for a public hearing in the House Finance Committee on Tuesday, February 18 at 8 am.