Mayor Addresses Chamber

Midway’s Mayor addressed the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday February 18th. Midway Mayor Celeste Johnson spoke of the importance of tourism to Midway’s economy, especially the ability of the city to collect a resort tax. The resort tax allows Midway and other communities with a certain ratio of full-time homes to short-term stay units to charge 1.1% tax for transactions in the city. Growth in Midway had put the city at risk of losing the ability to charge resort tax, but Mayor Johnson reports efforts to keep the tax by lobbying the state legislature has proven successful.
“We got legislation that created an extension to get back into compliance,” Johnson explained. I’m confident that we’ll be able to keep that tax now for at least the next 5 to 8 years. We’ll see what happens after that, but that tax represents about $700,000 for Midway. I’ve only got a $3.7 (million) budget so you can see that’s a substantial amount of income for us.”
Earlier this month Midway City Council added campsites from the Wasatch Mountain State Park into city boundaries to boost the ratio of homes to short-term units. Mayor Johnson also used the speech as an opportunity to address growth issues in Midway. Johnson said residents of Midway sent a clear message in 2018 when they passed the $5 million open space bond, that message being that part of preserving the culture of Midway includes protecting open space.