Local Business Owners Support Hotel Tax

Several Harford County business owners have started a grass roots effort to tell local politicians to pass enabling legislation for a tax that would fund tourism-marketing projects. 

Harford is the only county in Maryland that does not have a hotel tax, a fee tacked on every time a customer pays for lodging. If the state delegation passes enabling legislation in Annapolis, then municipalities in Harford County can levy a tax.

“We are asking for a level playing field,” said Becky Fitzgerald, chair of the Harford County Tourism Board. “When we travel for pleasure or business, we’re helping out other counties but the reverse isn’t true here, so it’s high time we have that tax.” 

Fitzgerald is the owner of , a riverboat ride, and . She is one of many tourism business owners working with the Harford County Economic Development Advisory Board to send a united message to politicians.

“I am definitely in support of the tax,” said Roxanne Harry, director of sales at the Hilton Garden Suites in Aberdeen. “If we’re going to be taxed by the government somehow in life, well, we might as well get taxed and put it to use and put it toward destination.”

Fitzgerald and Harry joined a meeting with members of the Harford County EDAB and other stakeholders–restaurateurs, hotel managers and owners of other tourism businesses–two weeks ago to discuss how to get hotel tax legislation sponsored. A challenge has been conveying to politicians that travelers coming to Harford County would be paying the hotel tax more often than county citizens.

“I don’t think it’s an issue of whom people vote for or what representatives stand for. It’s more representation drawing strong lines saying I won’t pass legislation that involves taxes in this economy, and sometimes that line can cut against industries,” said Eric McLauchlin, chair of the Harford County EDAB.

The revenue from a hotel tax would be split into tourism promotion and project grants, including the possibility of a county convention center. The revenue could also be used to offset property taxes and payments on Ripken Stadium.

But without enabling legislation, plans are on hold.

When asked about what the percentage of the lodging cost the hotel tax should be, McLauchlin said, “there shouldn’t be a discussion about how to divide the pie if you don’t have an oven to bake it in yet."

This year there was a 9 percent growth in tourism receipts from 2010, according to the Harford County Office of Tourism. Because there is no lodging tax, there was no growth from the tourism sector in terms of tax revenues returned to the local economy.