Harford County’s Hotel Tax Tanked by State Senate; Identity of the Bill’s Assassin Remains Unknown

This news was passed along this morning by Delegate Dan Riley:

“Hotel tax, for Harford County, killed in the Senate.

It is with great disappointment I’ve learned the hotel tax for Aberdeen was killed in the Senate.

The bill was doing well until someone offered an amendment. The amendment was accepted and became part of the bill thus killing Aberdeen’s chances of getting the hotel tax this year. I do not know what Senator was behind the amendment, I can only guess…maybe a friend of Hess?

I will bring the bill back next year, and the next year, and the next year…until it passes or the opposition, in the Senate, to the bill is retired by the voters.” Continue reading Harford County’s Hotel Tax Tanked by State Senate; Identity of the Bill’s Assassin Remains Unknown

Harford Hoteliers Be Forewarned, Taxing Times Ahead: The Statewide Push To Tax Rooms In Aberdeen

If state Sen. Barry Glassman has his way, he will not give Harford County or the City of Aberdeen the ability to put a new tax on hotel/motel rooms anytime soon - unwelcome news to a financially-strapped city that was looking to finally secure the much sought after lodging surcharge.

While the rest of the city toiled with transition teams, inner turmoil among a feuding police department and ethics violations, old and new, at least one group of Aberdeen residents actually tried to get something done the old fashioned way - traveling by bus to Annapolis last week in support of the latest push to implement a hotel/motel room tax in Harford County.

Harford County is the lone jurisdiction in Maryland without the authorization to impose and collect a minimal fee on each night’s stay in such lodging. Yet its best chance yet to get the proposition passed - with a new senator representing the county and a broader bill introduced - may still be scuttled by fears of imposing a new tax, even a pass-through tax, during such uncertain economic times. Continue reading Harford Hoteliers Be Forewarned, Taxing Times Ahead: The Statewide Push To Tax Rooms In Aberdeen