Tuesday Meeting with Mayor
Thank you to everyone that attended today's meeting. To those who were not able to attend, I would like you to know what happened. About thirty people were there, split between hotels and restaurants. There was at least one person representing retail, Bob Hastings and Beth Morris from the Chamber, Linn Parisi from the DMO and of course Mayor Kirk and Jim Duggan.
The administration will be submitting their proposal to exercise the full local option tax tonight at the city council meeting. The original proposal lists the recipients of the tax receipts as 1. Sawyer Free Library $125,000, 2. Rose Baker Senior Center $20,000, 3. Gloucester Fisheries Commission $20,000, and 4. the balance to shore up snow and ice removal. See http://www.gloucester-ma.gov/localpages/citycouncil/packets/info_07_282009_2006.pdf .
My estimate was that 30% of the attendees were dead set against any increase, period. The reasons were loss of business, neighboring towns were not implementing it, and the inequity of the restaurants and hotels contributing more tax revenue than others.
The balance seemed to be able to support the increase only on the condition that some of the revenue is used to promote tourism to the city. The reasons were 1. we needed to promote the area and no one business could afford to do that in addition to their existing marketing plan, 2. the city should contribute to increasing tourism and thus tax dollars to the area, and 3. tourism has already contributed to the tax base and received very little benefit.
Amounts were varied from the minimum needed to hire a publicist to what an equitable arrangement would be. These ran from $50,000 to tied to 20% of just the occupancy tax to a full one third of all additional tax revenue (this came from a conversation after the meeting).
The general consensus was that the money is to be used only to promote Gloucester to new business. The publicist idea was very well received. There was a request that the monies go into an enterprise fund so it would not be taken away in the future or spent on other things.
Two other important points that were raised.
Restaurants that do a majority of their business to locals and are year round will get little to no benefit under any proposal that includes any increase in taxes.
The rush to have this passed by Aug 31 will make it go into affect on Oct 1. Otherwise, it gets put off for another quarter. The city does not want this because that will be the quarter with the least amount of revenue. I don't think it will affect any tourism dollars we receive because I don't think they are going to offer enough to make it attractive. Putting it off will also give us time to set up the enterprise fund so the money will be protected and we will have time to come up with a decent proposal.
What happens now.....
The mayor has said that she will submitted additional proposals that would include some of the options that we discussed. This will than go to the Ordinance and Administrative Committee to be discussed. I will get a copy of what exactly has been submitted and post when I have it.
What can you do....
We really need to come to a consensus of what we would like to see. If we lobby as a group, we will be much more effective. Please express your opinion and then we go to the O and A committee. We have to work fast as they are trying to pass this prior to August 31.
The administration will be submitting their proposal to exercise the full local option tax tonight at the city council meeting. The original proposal lists the recipients of the tax receipts as 1. Sawyer Free Library $125,000, 2. Rose Baker Senior Center $20,000, 3. Gloucester Fisheries Commission $20,000, and 4. the balance to shore up snow and ice removal. See http://www.gloucester-ma.gov/localpages/citycouncil/packets/info_07_282009_2006.pdf .
My estimate was that 30% of the attendees were dead set against any increase, period. The reasons were loss of business, neighboring towns were not implementing it, and the inequity of the restaurants and hotels contributing more tax revenue than others.
The balance seemed to be able to support the increase only on the condition that some of the revenue is used to promote tourism to the city. The reasons were 1. we needed to promote the area and no one business could afford to do that in addition to their existing marketing plan, 2. the city should contribute to increasing tourism and thus tax dollars to the area, and 3. tourism has already contributed to the tax base and received very little benefit.
Amounts were varied from the minimum needed to hire a publicist to what an equitable arrangement would be. These ran from $50,000 to tied to 20% of just the occupancy tax to a full one third of all additional tax revenue (this came from a conversation after the meeting).
The general consensus was that the money is to be used only to promote Gloucester to new business. The publicist idea was very well received. There was a request that the monies go into an enterprise fund so it would not be taken away in the future or spent on other things.
Two other important points that were raised.
Restaurants that do a majority of their business to locals and are year round will get little to no benefit under any proposal that includes any increase in taxes.
The rush to have this passed by Aug 31 will make it go into affect on Oct 1. Otherwise, it gets put off for another quarter. The city does not want this because that will be the quarter with the least amount of revenue. I don't think it will affect any tourism dollars we receive because I don't think they are going to offer enough to make it attractive. Putting it off will also give us time to set up the enterprise fund so the money will be protected and we will have time to come up with a decent proposal.
What happens now.....
The mayor has said that she will submitted additional proposals that would include some of the options that we discussed. This will than go to the Ordinance and Administrative Committee to be discussed. I will get a copy of what exactly has been submitted and post when I have it.
What can you do....
We really need to come to a consensus of what we would like to see. If we lobby as a group, we will be much more effective. Please express your opinion and then we go to the O and A committee. We have to work fast as they are trying to pass this prior to August 31.
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