Bill to allow New Castle County lodging tax heads to Senate

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A bill that would allow New Castle County to impose a lodging tax of up to three percent is headed to the Senate.

The measure passed the House this week on a 29 to eight voice vote.

The bill may face tougher going in the Senate, a legislative body where Democrats hold a slim majority.

The county sought the tax as a way to partially address a structural budget deficit that even with the tax would require a property tax increase. 

A bill that would allow municipalities to impose their own three percent tax is now before the House Administration Committee. The measure was endorsed by the Newark City Council. The college town has about 1,000 hotel rooms.

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Both measures are fiercely opposed by the lodging industry, which pointed to the state’s already hefty eight percent lodging tax and nearly two-decade drought in the number of hotel openings in Wilmington. The state’s largest city has a two percent room tax.

Two hotels have been built in the city in recent years, with another on the way on the Riverfront.

The state tax earmarks a portion of the revenues for convention and visitors bureau. The Wilmington and the proposed county measures turn over all revenues to the governmental unit.

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Passing room tax would boomerang on  government, economy

 

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