"Hotel industry fights lodging tax to benefit Ohio airport"

Saturday, July 19, 2003

Hotel industry fights bed-tax increase
The Associated Press


YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Motel-hotel operators are mobilizing against a possible
increase in the lodging tax to benefit the Youngstown-Warren Regional
Airport.

Commissioners in Mahoning County, which includes Youngstown, and adjacent
Warren and Trumbull County are considering increasing the tax.

Recently passed legislation allows communities with airports to increase bed
taxes to pay for airport operations.

Some hotel/motel owners have complained that the proposed increase would
push the taxes charged for hotel rooms to 15 percent.

Only Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus have higher taxes in Ohio, said
Barton Hacker, a spokesman for the Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association, which
will represent hotels in opposing the tax increase.

Hacker said if the tax is raised, many travelers may decide to stay in
hotels in nearby Pennsylvania. Tom Lyden, director of the Mahoning Visitors
Bureau, said the tax in Pennsylvania is about 7 percent.

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