Pike room tax and tourism

By DAVID HULSE

MILFORD, PA — The Pike County Commissioners’ absence was noted at a December 29 informational meeting on the county’s proposed hotel tax, but it was not a statement in itself, commissioners’ chair Harry Forbes said.

“It was the holidays and I was with my family,” Forbes said on January 5.

Milford businessman Sean Strub called the holiday week meeting and announced the formation of a new Pike County Hospitality Association, which he said would compete with the Pocono Mountain Vacation Bureau (PMVB) for hotel tax money to market Pike County separately from the Poconos.

The commissioners have already named the PMVB as the county’s official tourism promotional agency, but Forbes said the commissioners will be meeting with Strub, as they have in past. “We’ve already taken up a lot of his issues,” Forbes said.

Forbes said he would like to see the new association get a longer track record before talking about appropriating tax money for its use. “It’s a brand new group, but we’ll listen to any citizen of Pike County,” he said.

Commissioner Richard Caridi said he had a family health emergency that prevented his attendance, but noted that as many times as Strub has met with the commissioners that “no one has ever approached us in a public venue. I make a point of asking every week.”

Caridi said further that he did not agree with Strub’s suggestion that some people might have negative associations with the Pocono marketing brand. “I found that offensive,” he said.

Still Forbes said that the PMVB had gotten the message from those at the hotel tax meeting. He said that the tourism agency had been unaware that so many specialty areas of the tourism business community felt undermarketed. “They’re not sitting back. They’ve looked hard and listened to their constituents. We’ve got sports, eco-tourism, the lake, the river, Milford. They’re different groups, whether they’re members or not. You’ve got the same things in Monroe and Wayne counties and [PMVB has] got to look at those specialties,” Forbes said.

Now that the PMVB has agreed to address those concerns, “Our job is to get it in writing,” Caridi said. “It’s all checks and balances.”

The hotel tax can be withdrawn at the commissioners’ discretion. “We can always repeal it. They know that and I’m sure they’re going to work with us,” said commissioner Karl Wagner.

Strub also expressed concern that up to $1 million of hotel tax money would be going to support the financially troubled Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center.

“Mountain Laurel is a discretionary [tax] use and a separate memorandum of understanding for the PMVB. They don’t need our signatures to do it,” Forbes said of the funding issue.

Forbes said he has been in touch with Wayne and Carbon counties, the other two counties in the four-county marketing group who still must approve the tax. Wayne County Commissioners’ chair Tony Herzog’s concern was the high cost of membership in the PMVB, Forbes said.

Forbes said Pike also insisted on changes in the nomination process for members of the advisory group that administers the new tax, which is expected to raise up to $3 million annually.

As discussion continues among the commissioners and counties, Forbes said legal notices and formal notifications will delay enactment. “We have no target date yet,” he said.

In agenda business at last week’s meeting, the commissioners voted to eliminate six county job positions, including three clerks, two secretaries and a part-time district attorney. All but one of the clerk’s positions was vacant through attrition, Caridi said.