Taxes that support tourism in Howard County are set to go down Jan. 1, but the Howard County Convention & Visitors Bureau hopes the Howard County Council will allow it to keep the current rate.
People staying in Howard County hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts are currently taxed 5 percent per night. The innkeeper’s tax is expected to generate $600,000 in 2014, but if the tax reverts to 4 percent, the CVB estimates it will lose about $150,000 a year.
“The loss of 1 percent of our revenues would not be a good scenario,” said Chris Hamm, president of the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance. “The tax is paid by non-county residents. It would cut into the programming. Losing 1 percent of our revenues would damage our efforts.”
The tax was enacted by the Indiana General Assembly at 4 percent and was raised to 5 percent to cover the cost of bonds issued to buy the Kokomo Event Center. The bonds were paid off last year. After Howard County implemented the tax, the state created a law offering uniformity in how the tax is collected and managed. Under this law, the tax is set at 5 percent.
The CVB will ask the Howard County Council to allow it to operate under the state’s uniform innkeeper tax, instead of legislation that is specific to Howard County. Operating under the uniform law, however, would change the makeup of the CVB board, giving the city of Kokomo more seats.
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