Misgivings.
That was the sentiment from Buncombe County’s legislative delegation regarding a bill to raise the Buncombe County hotel-room tax that moved through General Assembly this week.
Language drafted by Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, was added Wednesday to a months-old bill dealing with the Graham County room tax.
As is common with local bills, there was no discussion or debate of the room tax bill in the Senate Thursday and little opposition.
Under the measure, three-quarters of the proceeds from the increase would go to marketing and advertising to lure more tourists to the Asheville area. The rest would go to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s product development fund, which makes grants and loans to projects expected to attract visitors.
We’re not opposed to an increase in the tax affecting tourists, and we appreciate Sen. Apodaca’s leadership in pushing it forward. But we’re disappointed in the way these funds are dispersed.
Tourists can be our lifeblood, but they also take advantage of our services for free. They wear down our roads and create increased demand for everything from food inspectors to police and ambulance services.
We think it’s only fair that they be asked to give a small token back for the pleasure of being temporary residents of our city. Our local representatives in Raleigh apparently think otherwise.
This bill could have been better. If the public weren’t kept in the dark about it, a compromise could have been reached that allowed money for tourism marketing as well as a dedicated sum to be used to bolster our increased need for police officers — call it a dedicated public safety fee or infrastructure use tax.
As it is, at least for now our legislators seem to be OK with the concept that taxpayers need to foot the bill for the increased demand on our services. State Senators Apodaca and Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncombe, voted in favor of this approach, which also has backing from Buncombe’s all-Democratic delegation in the House.
We appreciate the bipartisanship, but we disagree with their endorsement of this bill.
The increase was sought by hoteliers who were worried that an expected jump in the number of hotel rooms in Buncombe County over the next few years will lower occupancy rates and put downward pressure on the rates they charge.
Participants said there had been a handful of meetings between tourism industry leaders, TDA officials, legislators and city officials over roughly the past four or five weeks to discuss hoteliers’ proposal to raise the tax.
What’s missing from that picture? Any disclosure to anyone in the general public.
There’s nothing in this move that is askew of the law. The term “back-door dealing” does, however, come to mind.
We hope the city’s end of this bargain is addressed. Reps. Susan Fisher and Rep. John Ager, D-Buncombe, said the local legislative delegation expects city and county government to get a good share of the additional product development fund money.
“There is sort of a tacit agreement that the TDA … will be very receptive” to applications for funds from the city, county and Buncombe County’s other incorporated towns, Ager said.
We’ve got a good thing going here. Asheville tops any number of lists as a vacation destination. That is as it should be. It also needs to be at the top of lists of places to live, work and raise a family.
An agreement toward that needs to be more than tacit.
It’s a misgiving that our lawmakers should have addressed.
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