We are trying to fathom why the Sunday News is so avid and its esteemed editor Marv Adams is so irrational about obtaining information from the County Tax office concerning what actual hotels pay in the way of hotel room sales tax.
According Sunday News’ editor Marv Adams: “I don’t see how any discussion can be held on increasing the room tax, or keeping it the same, without those figures. We already know, from the treasurer’s office, that some hotels have fallen behind in their payments. How much of an effect has that had on overall collections and operation of the convention center and the Visitors Bureau? We think the public should know.”
Does Adam’s believe that the county is failing to collect taxes due from some hotels? If so, they should simply ask for an ‘aging report’ of past due accounts. This would avoid the legal and ethical objections raised by hoteliers who consider such information proprietary.
Does Adam believe that some hotels are underreporting their occupancy? If so, they should be prodding the county treasurer’s office to perform more audits.
But if their purpose is to learn how well the Marriott Hotel is doing and they cannot obtain that information from their parent company which is a partner in that enterprise, then they should be pressing RACL (the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster) which actually owns the hotel to seek that information from its tenant, Penn Square Partner, and to make the information public.
Once again, secrecy prevails while taxpayers are being taken advantage of.