The Harford County Council easily passed Tuesday night a long-sought room tax for the county and repealed Harford's version of the stormwater remediation fee – also known as the "rain tax."
Councilman Chad Shrodes tried to push through an amendment on the room tax bill, which will collect 6 percent on rentals, that would have sent 25 percent of the revenue to the county's general fund instead of just to tourism activities, but the move was voted down.
Shrodes said the 25 percent would mean $686,566 going to the general fund, allowing for potentially more road improvement projects and even a 1 percent raise for county employees.
He pointed out only three Maryland jurisdictions direct all revenue from their lodging tax into tourism. Harford has been the only Maryland county without such a tax, which charges all hotel or motel guests staying overnight for up to 30 days.
Councilman Jim McMahan grilled Shrodes on the need for the amendment right now, and other council members also questioned the need to redistribute the prospective revenue while passing the long-hoped-for tax.
Fifty percent of the hotel tax collected from a hotel within a municipality - Aberdeen, Bel Air or Havre de Grace - will be paid to the municipality. The remaining balance of the revenue will go to the county and be dedicated to funding tourism.
Councilman Mike Perrone, who represents the Joppa and Edgewood areas, was alone in supporting Shrodes' amendment.
"I think it's still incumbent to try to get it as right as we can in the beginning," Perrone said. Although the funding would not be channeled toward any specific areas of the general fund, he said: "It's still more than the general fund would have had before. I think it's a better balance than what the bill had before."
Perrone also voted against the final, unamended version of the bill. He said the bill grows government and unfairly targets many Harford residents who are forced to live at motels because of bad credit or other personal problems.
"We are collecting revenue we did not collect before, and that is growing government," Perrone argued. "I have a problem with a tax that is going to catch our county's poorest residents."
Perrone also suggested tourism should have to compete with other parts of county government for funding instead of getting a dedicated revenue stream, and he thought unincorporated communities should get funds just like the municipalities.
Despite the amendment's failure, Shrodes said he hoped the move brought attention to the declining attention of county roads, which he noted would get more wear and tear if tourism brings more people to Harford.
Council President Richard Slutzky said the county still has a lot of work to do in actually seeing revenue come in, much less figuring out how to distribute it.
"We have waited a long time for getting the enabling legislation [to pass the tax] from Annapolis," Slutzky said. "I think what we are really concerned with here is the process."
Slutzky said distributing the revenue "is all down the road once we have this on board."
Councilman Joe Woods had similar thoughts, while Councilman Pat Vincenti, who has led Havre de Grace's Decoy Museum, said he believes the tax will give "a great incentive" to tourism officials to continue their work in creating jobs and strengthening the economy.
"In my 30 years experience in tourism in Harford County, I don't know of any dedicated revenue source that has been available during that time," he said.
Vincenti countered Perrone's statements on the bill's inequity, saying that he believes it will be "a great way to revitalize the entire Route 40 corridor" and said he would be willing to visit every hotel or motel in the area to see how many Harford residents are actually staying there.
Councilman Curtis Beulah agreed that the distribution of funding could be reconsidered in several months. He said the tax would be a "big boost" to the county's museums especially, which he thought "are getting very little."
The council also unanimously approved the repeal of the stormwater mediation fee, despite a string of residents and community leaders asking them to keep it in place during a recent public hearing.
Perrone, McMahan and Shrodes all said the county will still continue to provide environmental restoration.
"The pockets of taxpayers are not bottomless pits," Perrone said, adding the county will have to fund stormwater remediation "to the best of our ability," using existing funds.
McMahan said, despite the public hearing, he would support the repeal because "the vast majority of citizens in this county have given me a mandate to do so."
Shrodes added: "I was not for this [fee] before and I am not for the 'rain tax' now."
Slutzky said the dynamics in Annapolis have changed and he is sure the council will find a way to continue remediation by working with the state and council.
Passage of both bills was hailed Wednesday morning by County Executive Barry Glassman, who sponsored them.
"Harford County is now first in Maryland to repeal the rain tax, an unfair and uneven burden on business and residential taxpayers," Glassman said in a statement. "While my administration remains committed to watershed protection and restoration, we can meet these obligations using revenue from the county's general fund, and with innovative planning and funding of capital projects."
"Harford County is also the last county in Maryland to implement a hotel tax, finally leveling the playing field for our citizens who pay the tax when they travel everywhere else in the state, and in most of the nation," Glassman continued. "However, rather than use this tax revenue to grow government, Harford County will establish a competitive grant process putting funds to work where they can best promote tourism, and therefore, economic growth."
"I would like to thank the Harford County Council for their support of both these measures benefiting the taxpayers in Harford County, home of Maryland's new center of opportunity," he added.
The hotel tax bill will take effect 60 days after Glassman signs it. The stormwater fee repeal will take effect on July 1, coinciding with the start of the new fiscal year, which also would have been the date for the next year's billing of property owners.