The Arlington County Board on Wednesday asked its General Assembly delegation to seek a renewal of the county’s hotel tax surcharge.
The one-fourth of a cent tax charged to hotels is used to fund the Arlington Convention and Visitor’s Center, which promotes the county as a destination for tourists and businesses. The county spends just under $1 million annually on tourism promotion.
The law that allows the county to levy the tax needs to be reauthorized by the General Assembly every three years. So far, Arlington’s delegates have had little trouble getting the two-thirds supermajority vote needed to maintain the tax. But that could change, officials said.
“Reauthorization of this bill should be a no-brainer, but it’s going to be extremely challenging this year to get this bill through,” said Del. Bob Brink. “It has the dreaded ‘t’ word in it.”
Brink added that the delegates and senators may have to call on the County Council and Arlington businesses during the General Assembly to help convince the rest of the assembly that the tax is needed.
Board member Chris Zimmerman was the only one who questioned the importance of the tax. Zimmerman said that if the county’s delegates were going to have difficulty getting enough votes, their time may be better spent on other issues.
