Local officials hope to streamline how area lodging tax dollars are collected, and to capture revenue that may currently slip through the cracks. Those were two key highlights of a report to city officials Tuesday by former council member Paul Kess, who remains the city’s representatives on the Ely Area Lodging Tax Board. “And businesses are used to filing their sales tax with the state.”Kess said it makes the state a better fit for collecting the lodging tax as well, via the Minnesota Department of Revenue. “We are discussing that and moving forward and I hope the lodging tax board will move in that direction.”More than $300,000 per year is generated by the lodging tax, but Kess said that number could grow from a better handle on revenues generated by short-term lodging options such as vacation rentals. The lodging tax board has contracted with a firm in an effort to capture more of that revenue “so they too can be included in the process of paying the lodging tax.