The Idaho Falls Auditorium District

Cindy Ozaki has been named the new executive director for estimated $45 million event center project in Idaho Falls.

Ozaki’s prior role was chairman of the board for the Auditorium District.

The Auditorium District’s event center had been in the works for years; however, Oszaki said the district is getting closer to meeting its financial goal.

The event center is funded through a bed tax, along with grants and donations. Ozaki said the district is facing an issue with the bed tax in terms of short term rentals not paying taxes to the Auditorium District.

“We have not seen the money yet and part of that has been because most of the Airbnb vendors did not know about paying this tax,” Ozaki said.

Ozaki said hotels, motels and camp grounds pay a 5 percent tax which goes directly into the Auditorium District fund.

Ozaki said she’s trying to work with short term rentals companies and a plan that will require owners to pay a bed tax.

The city of Idaho falls is still developing an ordinance that will establish the definition of a short term rental
but Ozaki believes short term owners still need to pay their share.

“It’s important that people are paying the correct amount of taxes that they owe. We need to be fair to all businesses and that everybody operates by the same standards,” Ozaki said.

Those standards Ozaki is referring are paying required taxes across the board.

“Its not just paying the Auditorium District tax. It’s paying the sales tax, paying the tourist tax because all those taxes come back into our community also,” Ozaki said.

She said the short term rentals will also enjoy the benefits from the event center.

“The sooner that these people come online and start paying the tax, the faster we will get the event center built,” Ozaki said. “Well, that bed tax is going to allow us to build this event center, which is going to be huge for the community. It’s going to bring in new businesses. It’s going to bring in a lot of opportunity’s for families and employers in the community.”

Ozaki said she is facing a challenge but as the new executive director she will see to it that she gets this issue with short term rentals squared away.

“The sooner people pay, the quicker we can get this event center built,” Ozaki said.

The city of Idaho Falls is in the process of developing an ordinance to govern short term rentals
and the state Legislature is also developing a policy to regulate them.

Once that’s accomplished, the Idaho Falls Auditorium District will implement a new tax collection policy.