Lynchburg Lodging Tax Defeated

This story was published by WSET - ABC 13. The original article can be found here. 

LYNCHBURG (WSET) – At Tuesday night's Lynchburg City Council meeting, some tax increases were shot down, while others were passed. With a proposal on the table to increase the lodging tax to 8.5% and the room rate to $3, several folks spoke out against it during public comment.

David Marple, a Lynchburg resident and realtor, said the lodging tax would've driven people away. "When we raise lodging taxes, we risk driving those visitors elsewhere and hurting our local hotels, short term rentals, restaurants and shops," Marple said.

Blair Godsey, owner of the Virginian Hotel, spoke about the importance of affordability. "Our ability to provide an affordable experience has been and continues to be our competitive advantage that helps us bring people into the city," Godsey said.

Ultimately, the council voted against increasing any of it. The lodging tax will remain at 6.5%, and the lodging room rate at $1.

Ambulance rides are also not going up, because the motion to raise the rates didn't get seconded, so it never went to a vote. But the discussion of the real estate tax wasn't as quick.

Several council members spoke in support of directing staff to bring back a budget with a real estate tax from $.89 to $1.025 per $100. Councilwoman Stephanie Reed said that the increased rate would help everyone. "We are hitting all of the targets we talked about. Every household sees a benefit," Reed said.

However, the idea hit some strong opposition from others on the council, adamantly opposed to anything but an equalized rate, to offset higher reassessments. The equalized rate would've been $ .76 per $100.

“What we are doing is we are moving it from one place to another. There is no tax relief here. It’s just a transfer," Councilman Martin Misjuns said.

In a 4-3 vote, the Council passed motion for the staff bring back a budget with a real estate rate to be $1.025 per $100, reduce the personal property tax rate to $1.30 per $100 and make any other necessary cuts.

There will be a public hearing on the proposed real estate rate on June 23 at 7pm. The city has until July 1, according to the State Code, to pass its budget.