PORT TOWNSEND — City officials say they suspect that state parks officials systematically underpaid the city its portion of lodging tax revenues during the past two years.
The city is collaborating with the state Department of Parks and Recreation to determine the correct amount of back taxes that may be owed from lodging tax revenues collected through Fort Worden State Park.
“The amount may be within the range of $50,000,” said Port Townsend Finance Director Michael Legarsky, “but that’s a very preliminary number.”
The sum of back taxes might be as high as $200,000 some City Council members say.
The manager of Fort Worden State Park says the underreporting may be the result of a computer glitch.
“The best that I could find out down in Olympia is that we, at Fort Worden, were collecting the correct amount,” park manager Kate Burke said.
“But that wasn’t reported to the Department of Revenue due to the computer glitch.”
According to Legarsky, the city discovered the mistake in state parks department bookkeeping procedures last month, after parks officials reported an amount different from city estimates.
The city officials believe the mistake happened at the parks department’s headquarters in Olympia, not at Fort Worden, Legarsky said.
And Burke pointed out the discrepancy, he added.
