A Montgomery County Council committee voted against funding a $900,000 tax break for Lockheed Martin on Thursday.
However, the Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee plans to take a second look at legislation that would exempt Lockheed Martin’s Center for Leadership Excellence from the county’s hotel-motel tax, which was County Executive Ike Leggett’s aim in proposing the $900,000 grant in the first place.
“I believe that if we have corporate training facilities that house folks overnight that they should not be subject to the hotel-motel tax, and that the council should pass legislation to make certain of that,” said Steve Silverman, director of the county Department of Economic Development, the vehicle for the grant to Lockheed.
Though some council members agreed with the idea that the hotel-motel tax is inappropriate for Lockheed’s facility, where more than 99 percent of the guests are Lockheed employees and do not pay to spend the night, they didn’t think the Economic Development Fund grant was the appropriate form for a tax rebate.
“We do resent the fact that this has been politicized to a certain degree,” said Councilwoman and committee Chairwoman Nancy Floreen, D-at large. “There are some options that I think we’re interested in pursuing.”
