Think of Boston, and for most people one thing that comes to mind is the famous Tea Party, when thousands of pounds of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor as a protest against taxes.
Wonder what those patriots would think now?
Boston City Council is expected to vote soon on increasing the hotel tax from 12.45% to 14.45% and the meal tax from 5% to 7%.
The city already has some of the more ridiculous rental car taxes in the U.S. Years ago they added a $10 convention center surcharge per rental – and a host of other taxes including a parking tax. In the last year they added a $4 “customer facility charge” for a new car rental facility. Which hasn’t been built yet.
Boston is not alone, however, as cash-strapped cities and states try to figure out ways to raise taxes without officially raising taxes. And politicians are discovering it’s an easier sell to tax visitors than locals.
San Francisco is already at a 15.50 percent hotel tax, New York is 14.25 plus $3.50 a night. Portland, Oregon, has a 17 percent combined state and local tax on car rentals, before any fees added by the car companies themselves. Houston, in the traditionally anti-tax state of Texas, adds 17 percent to hotel bills and 15 percent to car rentals.
One reason for these additional taxes is the sense that while locals may rebel, and in the worst case leave the state over taxes, that tourists and business travelers will come anyway.
But in an economic downtown, you have to wonder, at what point do these additional charges contribute to visitors simply staying home?
And with individual travelers and conventions boycotting various cities and states on a regular basis for political reasons, are some localities risking the chance of a future tax boycott? If “soak the visitor” fees keep going up, we may be likely to find out.
