A few years ago Midland County and the city of Midland, Texas, implemented in a hotel/motel tax on people who have to spend the night here.
The reasons given to the public was that the revenue would be put to use to pull in more travelers. Results would be difficult to measure, however. But a more logical reason was that the people who spend the night in a hotel or motel in Midland would probably do so regardless of the travel tax. It was an easy tax to get passed because it was a tax on other people, people who would likely be barred from voting in local elections because of residency requirements.
So it's interesting to see an Economist article about travel taxes. They cite a report from Global Business Travel Association which lists, among other things, the five destination cities with the highest and lowest travel taxes, as follows:
The cities that impose the highest discriminatory travel taxes on travelers are:
1. Portland, OR
2. Boston, MA
3. Minneapolis, MN
4. New York, NY
5. Chicago, IL
Note the solidly Democrat Party leaning cities in the group with the highest tax. The Economist speculates that three of those cities are destinations for first time U.S. visitors, and a high tax probably wouldn't deter those travelers. Further:
The U.S. cities with the lowest discriminatory travel tax rates in central city locations are:
1. Orange County, CA
2. San Diego, CA
3. San Jose, CA
4. Burbank, CA
5. Ontario, CA
With the exception of one Mid-California city, they are in Southern California, an area generally considered to be more conservative than the rest of California. (Orange County isn't a city, but it's in there, nonetheless.) The taxes may already be high in California, but at least those jurisdictions don't discriminate against visitors.
Two addenda:
1. A portion of the Midland, Texas, travel tax receipts are doled out to favored businesses, like for example, the payment to the producers of a Christian rock concert -- see This Town Needs More Atheists -- demonstrating a lack of sensible uses for the money.
2. The GBTA also reports that business travel is increasing, a good sign, but so are travel prices, not such a good sign.
Comments