HomeMy WebLinkAboutSB 346 - Short Term Rentals - City of SLO - Second Letter - SUPPORT to GovernorCity of San Luis Obispo, Office of the City Council, 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401-3249, 805.781.7114,
slocity.org
September 9, 2025
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
1021 O Street, Ste. 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 346 (Durazo) Local agencies: transient occupancy taxes: short-term rental facilitator.
Request for SIGNATURE
Dear Governor Newsom,
The City of San Luis Obispo respectfully requests your signature on SB 346, which would better equip
cities to enforce local ordinances related short-term rentals, including the collection and remittance
of transient occupancy taxes (TOT).
Short-term rentals are regulated exclusively at the local level via the adoption of an ordinance that
often includes regulations on permitting, tax compliance, noise, parking, occupancy, as well as other
responsibilities for hosts and short-term rental facilitators. In some instances, ordinances limit the
number of short-term rentals allowed to operate lawfully, other ordinances ban short-term rentals
entirely.
Short-term rentals can present numerous challenges to neighborhoods and adjacent property
owners. They may create additional noise, traffic, parking, and public safety issues, decrease available
housing stock, and in some cases turn residential neighborhoods into de-facto hotel rows, collectively
creating additional demands on local public service providers.
Unfortunately, the enforcement of TOT ordinances and the collection and remittance of these taxes
from short-term rentals can be inconsistent, even when voluntary collection agreements are in place
with a short-term rental facilitator. Cities lack access to property addresses or other property-related
information, even under these agreements, resulting in a difficult choice to either accept tax
payments without any way to verify their accuracy and legality or to collect taxes directly from
property owners—a costly and time-consuming process. Meanwhile, short-term rental facilitators
have full knowledge of these properties’ locations and resist disclosing this information. Cities can
only compel short-term rental facilitators to disclose this critical information through certain legal
action, such as subpoenas. This is not how oversight of public dollars should work.
SB 346 would address the above issues by providing cities with the physical address of each short-
term rental listed on the facilitator’s website and full audit authority of TOT dollars. These changes
would ensure the correct amount of TOT is being collected and remitted and would allow for more
efficient enforcement against unlicensed units.
For these reasons, the City of San Luis Obispo requests your signature on SB 346.
Sincerely,
Erica A. Stewart
Mayor
City of San Luis Obispo
cc. The Honorable María Elena Durazo
Brady Borcherding, Deputy Legislative Affairs Secretary
Assemblymember Dawn Addis
Dave Mullinex, League of California Cities
Meg Desmond, League of California Cities, cityletters@cacities.org