Hotel/motel tax checks out

    The residents of Washington gave a resounding ?no? to the proposed hotel/motel tax at Tuesday?s city elections, defeating the measure by a 2-to-1 margin. Of the 837 residents who voted on the referendum, 559 voted against (67 percent) while 278 voted in favor.

    The measure would have enacted a 7 percent sales tax upon the renting of rooms in any hotel, motel, inn or public lodging house. The money generated by the tax would have been spent on enhancing recreational facilities or the promotion of tourism.

    Gordon Olberding, who owns a motel in Washington and lobbied against the tax, said he was surprised the measure lost as badly as it did.

    ?I am surprised the vote was so overwhelming,? said Olberding. ?I was concerned it would pass, but I hoped that people were going to see that the supporters of the tax didn?t have a good idea of how they?d spend the money if they got it.?

    Olberding said that he wants to increase tourism in Washington, but a hotel/motel tax is not the way to do it.

    ?You first have to create tourists before you can tax them,? said Olberding. ?You can?t tax something you don?t have. As it stands, we do not have tourists to Washington.?

    Olberding said that most of his customers come to Washington with work in mind and not entertainment.

    ?The majority of my customers are not tourists. I can?t stand across the table from them and say that the tax is for tourism,? said Olberding. ?The vast majority are blue-collar workers who are here several days to work.?

    Olberding said that he did not encounter very many people who supported the tax.

    ?From the people I talked with, when I mentioned the tax, no one brought back an argument for why it was a good idea,? said Olberding. ?As far as my customers go, I didn?t have any who were for it.?

    Julie Mangold, who is a member of the Chamber of Commerce?s Tourism Committee that supported the measure, said she was not surprised to learn it was defeated.

    ?I think most people did not understand what they were voting for,? said Mangold. ?The other side did a better job of making its case than we did.?

For the full story, see the Nov. 4 edition of The Washington Evening Journal