Gypsum voters approve a town lodging tax to replace the county levy in 2027

Gypsum voters have decided to bring the town's lodging tax home. Unofficial results from the Nov. 3 coordinated election show Ballot Issue 2A passing, according to the Colorado Municipal League's statewide tally of municipal election results, published Nov. 4 and revised Nov. 5. The measure replaces the 4 percent lodging tax that Eagle County collects on overnight stays inside Gypsum with a Town of Gypsum lodging tax at the same 4 percent rate, beginning Jan. 1, 2027. The rate does not change. The control does.

What a guest pays at checkout stays the same, because the county tax ends inside town limits as the town tax begins. What changes is who decides how the money is used. Under the ballot language, the revenue is reserved for capital projects: roads, parks and recreation facilities, and other town public improvements, and for special events the town sponsors, funds or helps pay for. The question also authorizes the town to collect, keep and spend the full amount raised as a voter approved revenue change. The league's release lists the measure among the lodging taxes that passed across Colorado; it does not publish a vote count for Gypsum, and the county canvass is still to come.

SHALL TOWN OF GYPSUM TAXES BE INCREASED $200,000 IN THE FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR, BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 2027, AND BY WHATEVER AMOUNTS ARE RAISED ANNUALLY THEREAFTER FROM A (4%) LODGING TAX ON THE SHORT-TERM LEASING, RENTAL, SALE, OR FURNISHING OF A ROOM OR ACCOMMODATION FOR FEWER THAN 30 CONSECUTIVE DAYS

Ballot Issue 2A, as set by Town of Gypsum Resolution No. 23 (Series 2026)

A different answer than 2024

Gypsum voters rejected a similar municipal lodging tax question in November 2024, at a time when no hotels were under construction in town, as the town's own explanation of this year's question points out. The ground has since shifted at the west end of the valley. A 124 room Echo Suites hotel by Wyndham is under construction in Gypsum and scheduled to open in 2027, and a 140 room Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites project has recently received its building permit. The town's preliminary estimate is approximately 200,000 dollars a year in lodging tax revenue once the first hotel opens and begins operating, the same figure the ballot question names as the tax increase in its first full fiscal year.

What the county tax did with the money

Eagle County began collecting its lodging tax in Gypsum and in unincorporated parts of the county on Jan. 1, 2023, at 2 percent, and raised it to 4 percent on Jan. 1, 2026, according to the recitals in the town's resolution. State law requires 10 percent of county lodging tax revenue to be used for tourism advertising and marketing. In May, the county's Lodging Tax Marketing Committee announced its 2026 awards for the areas where the county tax applies, including 150,000 dollars to the Beaver Creek Resort Company for a marketing campaign, 100,000 dollars to the EGE Air Alliance for flight service marketing and 53,000 dollars to the Vail Valley Foundation for Birds of Prey marketing. The town tax carries no marketing set aside in its ballot language: it lists the town's capital purposes and special events, and nothing else. The county tax continues in unincorporated Eagle County; the change is only inside Gypsum.

What happens next

The results remain unofficial until the election is certified, and the Municipal League notes that its results are subject to change as certification proceeds. From Jan. 1, 2027, the town tax will apply to rooms and accommodations rented for fewer than 30 consecutive days, including short term rentals booked through platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO, which the town says are supposed to pay the county tax today and will see those payments transferred to the town. Gypsum has made this kind of swap before: in 2020 its voters replaced the county tobacco tax inside town with a town tax of their own, the model the town cites for this year's lodging question.