1 / 18

Pennsylvania Hotel Room Excise Taxes

Pennsylvania Hotel Room Excise Taxes. Draft Presentation. Introduction. Disclaimer Focus on County Room Taxes – not the Pennsylvania Hotel (State) Occupancy Tax. Pennsylvania County Room Taxes – “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the ???”. “The Good”.

Download Presentation

Pennsylvania Hotel Room Excise Taxes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Pennsylvania Hotel Room Excise Taxes Draft Presentation

  2. Introduction • Disclaimer • Focus on County Room Taxes – not the Pennsylvania Hotel (State) Occupancy Tax

  3. Pennsylvania County Room Taxes – “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the ???”

  4. “The Good” • Provides substantial TPA/CVB monies for (convention) facilities, and promotion, advertising, and marketing of tourism, and tourism development

  5. “The Bad” • Enabling statutes are not uniform for all sixty-seven (67) counties • Close to 40 statutes • At least 11 different structures • Frequently hoteliers, TPA’s, County Solicitors “in wrong pew” • Ambiguous statutory language • Competitiveness of Room Rates • Little or no case law interpretation • Different rules/regulations/MOU’s for different counties • Counties have not provided a great deal of regulatory guidance

  6. “The Ugly” • Ambiguous language and terms • Counties can remove “uncooperative TPA’s” • Politics – Politics – Politics ! ! ! • Enabling Statute – general guidance – very political on local level • Challenge of County Commissioner change of administrations • Pressure on counties to find sources of general funding • State trend toward minimization/elimination of annual Tourism Bureau grants • Hotels and CVB’s not always “in sync” • Conflict between hotels v. convention/expo center hotels supported by Room Tax • Special challenges for multi-county TPA’s

  7. “The ???” • State – policy of encouraging Regionalization • Legislative philosophy – “broad brush” approach – County TPA and County Commissioners develop own customized, unique relationships

  8. History Adoption of Hotel Room Taxes has been on a “piecemeal basis” – starting in 1977

  9. ENABLING STATUTES • Eleven Classifications • Close to 40 Different Statutes

  10. HistoryEnabling Statutes Authorizing Room Taxes to Fund Facilities: • 1977 - Allegheny County and Contiguous Counties • 1982 – Convention Center Authorization for Montgomery, Delaware, and Bucks County • 1986 – Philadelphia • Lackawanna (40% of 7%) • Dauphin (70% of 5%) • Lehigh & Northumberland (18.75% of 4%) • Berks, Luzerne, and Lancaster (80% of 5%) • Erie (80% of 5%)* (100% of the additional 2% - now at 7% total tax)

  11. HistoryEnabling Statutes Authorizing Room Taxes to Fund Facilities: • 1990’s – First Enabling Statutes to authorize county collection of Hotel Room Taxes exclusively for general tourism and marketing purposes • Some Enabling Statutes define “County” in such a fashion that only one county qualifies. Cont’d

  12. Enabling Statutes Authorizing County Room Taxes for “Marketing and Development” • Philadelphia • Allegheny • Second Class – A (Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks) - 3% • Certain Third Class Counties (Blair, Cambria, Centre, Chester, Indiana, Lancaster, Lycoming, Mercer, York) -3% • Third Class County having a Second Class City (Lackawanna) - 4%

  13. Third Class County (Dauphin) -10%/20% of 5% • Third Class Counties (Lehigh and Northampton) – 68.75% of 4% • Third Class Counties (Berks, Luzern, Lancaster) -20% of 5% (Tax expires when bond debt service is paid in full) • Third Class (Erie) – 20% of 5%

  14. Third Class through Eighth Class Counties not otherwise authorized to tax (Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Bradford, Butler, Cameron, Carbon, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, Cumberland, Elk, Fayette, Forest, Franklin , Fulton, Green, Huntington, Jefferson, Juniata, Lawrence, Lebanon, McKean, Mifflin, Monroe, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, Wyoming) – 3% • Sixth Class County (Adams) - 3%

  15. Enabling Statutes use undefined terms – “reasonable individuals may differ” – legislative interpretation: “common and approved usage” • e.g. - What do they mean: “tourism”, “tourism development” • 2005 Amendments to “Remaining Counties” and some of the other county statutes (including York) – fund usage - appears more precise • Resistance by Legislators to specifically define terms • Lobbying Compromise – leave room for county by county customization

  16. Inherent Tension: • All Tax monies collected are to go to the TPA for the specific purposes defined in the Enabling Statutes • If a TPA is uncooperative, county can designate another non-profit entity as the “Recognized Tourist Promotion Agency”

  17. County Room Taxes for purposes other than convention centers initially adopted to provide revenues in excess of the Annual DCED appropriations. • Trend (and potential outcome?) -County Occupancy Taxes replace the Annual DCED allocation

  18. Customized Section for Local/County/Regional Specifics of the Law and Agreement with County Commissioners Examples?

More Related