By Christiaan Hart-Nibbrig
NewsLanc has confirmed, through multiple sources, that members of the Board of Directors of the PA Dutch & Covention Visitor’s Bureau (PDCVB) met last week with several large hotel owners to discuss the possibility of raising the excise tax they currently pay, from 1.1% to the statutory limit of 2%.
This increase would raise the total room revenue tax on the Lancaster County lodging industry to 5.9%, from its current 5%.
According to one hotel owner, who did not wish to be identified, the PDCVB board members, including current Chair, Michelle Rondinelli; President & CEO, Christopher Barrett; and Chair-elect, C.E. Simmons III, suggested that an elective, or voluntary, tax hike be levied in order to further fund the marketing efforts of the PDCVB.
On Friday, July 10, at a tense member briefing of the PDCVB, the response from the hotel and motel owners was decidedly chilly, if not hostile.
“What exactly are they currently doing with the $2+ million a year in tax dollars they receive other than serve as the marketing arm of the hotel and convention center?” asked the hotel owner.
Clearly, the suggestion for an elective tax increase has not received a warm reception from hotel operators.
NewsLanc was able to reach Chairperson Rondinelli. “We have been, as a board, exploring different streams of revenue considering there may be funding cuts at the state level,” said Rondinelli.
“Our board has met with some of our members [regarding the tax hike],” Rondinelli admitted. “But I would say those are very beginning, premature discussions.”
PDCVB President and CEO, Barrett, seemed somewhat taken aback by NewsLanc’s questions. “I want to know your sources before I will comment,” said Barrett. NewsLanc’s multiple sources spoke on condition that their identities not be revealed, but we stand by their veracity.
While Barrett would neither confirm nor deny that he has been out discussing the tax hike with hotel owners, Board Chairperson Rodinelli already confirmed that fact over the weekend. Barrett went on to suggest neither he nor his predecessor at the PDCVB, Wendy Nagle, had made public statements opposing a tax hike. The record contradicts this assertion.
Wendy Nagle, who held Barrett’s position until 2006, wrote to Rodney Gleiberman, General Manager of the Continental Inn, on October 31, 2005 :
“[O]ur organization’s position both publicly and in private conversations has been quite consistent and firm NO INCREASED TAX,” [emphasis in original]
Gleiberman expressed surprise at Barrett’s response, “I am not sure why anyone would not admit these meetings took place, as they were not done in the privacy of the PDCVB boardroom, and they had to know that word would get out,” Gleiberman said. “As for a tax increase, any position now for an elective increase on their part would be a departure from previous statements that have been made to me.”
The lodging industry currently must pay a 3.9% room tax (of which 80% goes to the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority; the other 20% goes to the PDCVB), and another 1.1% excise tax (100% of which goes to the PDCVB).
( Updated July 13, 2009)
