Dear WH&LA Lodging Member:
The WH&LA has been quietly working on a new Room Tax Reform proposal that we feel will be more appealing to legislators, for almost a year now. Strategies were developed and components considered that we felt will remove some of the barriers experienced last session to gaining passage. The goal was to simplify, focus on the most important components, and to minimize the key opposition points in order to build a stronger base of legislative support. We kept this low profile both within our membership and with related tourism groups, in order to avoid plans getting derailed by giving the opposition advance notice.
While we know that the League of Municipalities will oppose pretty much any change to current room tax law that would provide more funding for local tourism growth, we want to minimize the basis of their arguments or we will not get past this strong lobbying group, which consists of political officials each of whom know lobbying techniques very well and how to use leverage with elected officials.
We have experienced a few roadblocks over the last month that have caused us to further revise strategies and components, which may jeopardize how soon we can succeed, but we are more determined than ever to succeed this session with meaningful room tax reform!
Yesterday, WH&LA worked with Joint Finance Committee members and other legislative leadership to consider introduction of a Room Tax Reform package in their Thursday Executive Session. As the day wore on, we gained and lost commitments of committee members, potentially leaving us one vote short of passage if they introduced it. If we had taken this risk and lost by one vote, the issue could not come up again in this committee, which closes one door to moving it forward. They did not bring it up for consideration, leaving the option for later action, and if that is not possible, we still can introduce legislation during regular session.
The reason we are outlining all of this now is we need a few actions from all lodging members to succeed:
