Lebanon to vote on hotel room tax

Lebanon County Commissioners will vote later this month on whether to impose a 2 percent tax on the 542 hotel and motel rooms available in the county.

Based on 50 percent room occupancy, the tax will generate $98,915 per year, County Administrator Jamie Wolgemuth estimated. Of that amount, 10

Jeff Hollebach thinks Lantern Lodge Motor Inn and Restaurant's banquet facilities and conference center will profit if the 2 percent hotel room tax passes on June 28.

"It's the wave of the future," said Hollebach, general of the Myerstown inn.

Lebanon County is the latest county to consider the tax, and not everyone has been as happy with the idea as Hollebach.

Barbara Marbain, owner of Homestay Farm Bed & Breakfast in Williams Grove, Cumberland County, believes the hotelmotel tax doesn't help small innkeepers. She opposes a 2 percent tax that has been collected by Cumberland County since April 1. (The tourism bureau collects the hotel tax in Cumberland County.)

About 25 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties now collect a hotelmotel tax. Here is a rundown of how the tax has been used in the Central Pennsylvania:

Cumberland County

Cumberland County requires a 2 percent tax from bed and breakfast inns, said Marbain, who is also vice president of the Cumberland Valley Bed & Breakfast Association. She said owners should be sent a newsletter every month, outlining how the tax helps B&Bs.

She operates a four-room B&B from April to October. Homestay isn't open in the winter because the 1841 farmhouse doesn't have central heat, she said. Repeat customers include parents with students at nearby Messiah College and Dickinson College, Carlisle car show participants and fishermen.

County Treasurer John Gross said the tax will promote a local military museum in Carlisle and a light-rail project that would tie into Amtrak lines.

"Light rail," Marbain said, her voice resonating disbelief "That's light years away.

A portion of the money goes to the Pennsylvania Capital Regions Vacation Bureau, which also receives taxes from Franklin, Perry, Dauphin and Lebanon Counties.

Norma Bigham. bureau president, said the agency uses its $2.4 million annual budget to market Dauphin County to convention and meeting planners. which increases tourism in Surrounding Counties.

"We promote Hershey heavily, both nationally and internationally," she said.

About $570,000 is returned to arts councils, museums and special projects in the form of grants, she said. The bureau will be operating four visitors centers when the Dauphin County visitors center opens in the fall. That center will be located along East Park Drive near the Four Points by Sheraton in Lower Paxton Township, just off of the Interstate 83 exit. The bureau employs 10 full-time and 13 part-time workers.

In April, the first month the tax was collected, Cumberland County received $61,917, Gross said. That represents about 90 percent of the collections so far, he said. About 60 hotels and motels collect the tax from their customers. Cumberland County keeps 2 percent for administrative costs.

Dauphin County

Since Jan. 1, 2000, Dauphin County, has collected a 2-cent tax from 150 hotels, motels, B&Bs and campgrounds, taking in about $2.2 million last year, said Robert F. Dick, county treasurer. The state legislature passed a law that allows the county to collect 3 cents on the dollar as of April, meaning collections could rise to about $3.3 million annually, based on last year's figures. Of the 2 cents, 70 percent goes to the Deny Township Industrial Development Authority to pay for a new 300,000-square-foot, 10,500-seat sports arena on 56 acres next to Hersheypark, where the Hershey Bears will play hockey.

And 20 percent goes to the city of Harrisburg for the National Civil War Museum, while 10 percent goes to the city, for tourism promotions. A] I of the I -cent increase in the tax stays with the count). which will use it for tourism projects.

Lancaster County

Thirty-seven hotel operators filed a lawsuit in March 2000 in Lancaster County Court against Lancaster city and the count) to stop the collection of a 5 percent room tax.

The innkeeper-, are upset that 3.9 percent of the 5 percent Lancaster County tax will help pay for a 280-room hotel and 100,000-square-foot convention center. It is planned for downtown in the former Watt & Shand building. Some believe it will damage their ability to bring in their own convention business; small operators simply think the convention center will do them no good.

The 37 dissenters lost their case in February, but they have appealed to a higher court, so the project is in limbo, said Brad Brubaker, president of Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Also, 80 percent of the 3.9 percent goes to the convention center authority and 20 percent goes to the visitors bureau. All of the 1.1 percent tax goes to the visitors bureau in East Lampeter Township, which markets Lancaster County hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts. and other tourism attractions.

Preliminary plans call for the 1897 Watt & Shand retail store to be renovated into a hotel and convention center. The convention center alone is expected to produce more than $2 million in sales and income taxes and more than $30 million in goods and services each year, Brubaker said, citing two studies.

Lancaster County Treasurer Greg Sahd said the tax, which began to be collected on Jan. 1, 2000, brought in $4.57 million for the year. An additional $986,000 was collected through April.

York County

Barb Miller, hotel tax coordinator for York County, said the 2 percent tax brought in about $579,000 in 1998, $668,000 in 1999, and $699,000 in 2000. All the money goes to the York County Visitor's Bureau for various tourism projects.

One example: the York Expo Center offers both indoor and outdoor exhibition space, which makes it more appealing.