Secret Bed Tax Plan?

More bad news leaking out from behind closed doors at the Board of County Commissioners - and you wonder why I filed a request in federal court for an injunction to keep these commissioners from doing any more damage before they finally take their leave?

The latest story I have heard is that the commissioners are planning to increase the “Bed Tax” (the extra tax for every night spent in a hotel in Cuyahoga County) by a whopping 40 percent!

They will not put this tax increase before the voters - it wouldn’t stand a chance. They will impose it by decree of the commissioners, without any public hearings or meaningful public discussion.

And to add a cynical twist, the commissioners will wait until after the November election to do the dirty deed so that they can insulate their favorite party county executive candidate (whomever that may be - I don’t think it’s me) from the inevitable public outrage and a backlash at the polls.

The increased Bed Tax will be earmarked as additional funds for the Medical Mart/Convention Center project. The commissioners don’t want to tell you, but they have known for months that there is no way that current funding will be adequate to cover the costs of this troubled project.  So, this is their solution.

Do you know where Greater Cleveland will rank among comparable cities in the nation if they increase the bed tax by 40 percent? No. 1! First place for punitive taxes imposed on anyone who is thinking about spending the night in a hotel here. Will that help our local economy? Will that help our already-struggling hotel industry?  Will that encourage visits to the new Med Mart or Convention Center?

When will they realize that the solutions they come up with only make the problems they created worse?

The reports of the “Secret Bed Tax Plan” have come from very reliable sources from the county and the local hotel industry, but there has been no official confirmation from the commissioners and nothing in the media yet. Maybe it’s not a done deal yet.

So, let me ask a public question that deserves an immediate public response: Tim Hagan, Peter Lawson Jones, Jimmy Dimora - are you going to slap this community with yet another imposed tax as a parting shot to the voters?

Say it ain’t so, commissioners, say it ain’t so!

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