The Wilson County Tourism Development Authority is seeking an increase in the county’s tax on hotel occupancy. Their reasoning is good for a chuckle on a still-soggy Thursday morning in North Carolina, so long as one?s sense of humor isn’t strained by the frustration of it all:
“The need for increasing the room occupancy tax is really two- or three-fold,” said Bobby Boykin, chairman of the board. “One is we had the lowest tax rate of any county around in that most counties have 5 or 6 percent, and ours is only 3, and also we have more requests for funding from these nonprofits every year, and it’s getting so that we have to deny some really good programs and ideas because there’s not enough funding to spread around. And we will eventually have a visitors center of some sort, and it’s good to get this funding source in place because it takes some time to do it.”
OK, let’s break this down. First, Wilson’s hotel tax is lower than in most counties ? counties that compete with Wilson for tourism business. Therefore, of course, Wilson needs to eliminate that competitive advantage!
Second, local nonprofits are asking for more money than they used to. Therefore they must actually need more money to carry out a legitimate government function. No, wait, the argument is that tourists pay the tax and they impose cost on roads, parks, and other public infrastructure. But the nonprofits don?t build roads, parks, and other infrastructure. They print brochures and hold festivals. I?m confused.
Finally, Wilson County “will eventually have a visitors center of some sort.” There is no actual proposal, no timetable, no concept of how much it might cost or what it might look like. But let?s get the tax raised anyway! We?ll figure out how to spend the proceeds ? eventually.
