Government officials from Harford County and its municipalities, as well as several community and business leaders, have vowed to make a more streamlined, persistent effort to get a room tax through the Maryland General Assembly this coming legislative session.
The officials were at a quarterly meeting of municipal and county officials in Havre de Grace Dec. 1, where the hotel and motel tax, widely known as a "room" tax, was the only topic of discussion.
But while all those attending the session agreed a room tax makes sense, including members of his own cabinet, County Executive David Craig said Thursday he doesn't think a room tax will happen this year because most of Harford County's legislators in Annapolis won't support the enabling legislation the county needs before such a tax can be implemented.
Craig said it won't matter if the local officials agree such a tax is needed. "It's not going through" the legislature, he said flatly.
During last week's meeting in Havre de Grace, Winifred Roche, manager of the Harford County Office of Tourism, said more education needs to be done to emphasize the tourism aspect of the tax, which is expected to go largely toward local tourism purposes.
"As we are going out [to the public], we are not asking for a hotel tax. We are asking for tourism promotion legislation," she said. "That's what we have to remember. If we are only asking for a tax, then that's what this will become: a tax."
Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne Dougherty added: "If you call it a fee, watch out, because the public today perceives a fee as a tax."
Aberdeen City Councilwoman Ruth Ann Young and Bel Air Mayor Eddie Hopkins were also in attendance.
Roche said the room tax effort dovetails with two current initiatives: a tourism "destination" study expected to be completed by mid-January and a push by the Economic Development Advisory Board to lobby for a dedicated revenue source for tourism.
"It is vital that we have a dedicated revenue stream," she said, explaining a consulting group has met with close to 40 stakeholders in the tourism study.
"We have really tried to be inclusive and we are really looking forward to seeing the findings of their study," she said. "We feel like we are at a place where we need to push to get to the next plateau."
The tourism office is looking into the viability of a conference center for the county, as well as how to support public sports facilities and other infrastructure, she said.
Dougherty said the idea that the desired legislation is not about raising taxes has been a big stumbling block for the Harford County delegation, but he also said he feels better after speaking with them more recently.
"Their…question is, 'Why are all of you wanting to raise taxes at this time?' Well, that showed me a little something," Dougherty said, explaining he told the delegates about his background with the travel industry and how the tax would actually help residents.
The delegates then asked him what he really wanted, he said.
"My answer was very simple: the ability for Harford County to do that," he said. "Let us afterward work out the details."
"I felt comfortable when they left, so hopefully we are going to have a little bit better push this time," Dougherty said about the legislation. "I think if we keep it clean, like everybody's saying, it's going to help. It's going to benefit all of us."
Steve Johnson, of Aberdeen's Economic Development Commission, explained the current lack of a tax actually hurts residents.
"Harford County residents are already paying that tax when they travel anywhere. When other folks travel to Harford County, they are not helping Harford County," he said.
Havre de Grace Councilman Fred Cullum said he hopes the bill will be more successful than last year, when it died at the last minute after being tied to property tax forgiveness for a retirement community in Aberdeen and causing an uproar.
"I think it's a very important issue to all of us and I just wanted to discuss it and make sure we are all on the same page, so we don't have the fiasco we had last year," Cullum said.
Johnson agreed with that.
"It's very important for our legislators to get the same, seamless message from all of us, because they seem to be unable to pick up the ball and carry it themselves," he said.
Without the tax, "we are in a competitive disadvantage," he said. "Baltimore City is already looking at building another [convention center] and Harford County's missing out if we are not looking ahead."
Craig was represented at the quarterly by spokesman Ben Lloyd, who said he would relay the message about a seamless perspective to the executive.
County treasurer Kathryn Hewitt said she came from a jurisdiction [Prince George's County] that had such a tax and is certainly familiar with it.
"You are right, it's really a tax paid not by our citizens, but people that come and stay in our county," she said. "From the treasury perspective, it does mean an additional collection effort, obviously, for the hotel and motels, and it does usually mean an additional audit function for us, because we need to get out and audit those taxes from time to time."
From her point of view, she said it definitely made sense.
"It is something I personally would like to see the county have the ability to have," she said.
During a meeting with members of The Aegis editorial staff in Bel Air Thursday, Craig said the room tax enabling legislation would be a hard sell in Annapolis, which is why he doesn't believe Harford County will be able to implement the tax.
He predicted at least two of the county's three state senators, Barry Glassman and Nancy Jacobs, would not support any tax legislation because of their future political aspirations. Glassman is expected to run for county executive to succeed Craig in 2014, while Jacobs is considering running for Congress next year.