Tax to help tourism

By Staff
Jason Cannon
Johnny Mack Morrow will soon introduce a bill in the state House of Representatives which will help fund the county chamber of commerce and promote tourism in Franklin County.
The bill calls for an additional lodging tax of $1 per night to be tacked on to those who stay in hotel and motel rooms in the county.
"Tourism dollars is clean money," Morrow said. "It's money coming in from out of the county and out of the state. Those dollars are just passing through. This is just a good way to hold on to some of them."
The funds generated by the additional $1 per night, which is anticipated to be between $30,000 and $35,000 per year, will go directly to the county chamber of commerce and will be used to promote the county, which Cheryl Bradford, Executive Director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, hopes to use to make the county more appealing to tourists.
"I don't have any problems with lodging taxes," said Morrow, who also serves as chairman of the State Tourism and Travel Committee. "Those kinds of taxes don't affect our residents. They're not renting rooms in Franklin County. Now, where I have a problem with lodging taxes is when the money doesn't go toward promoting tourism."
As part of the bill, lodges and local campgrounds, such as the Allegro campground in Red Bay and the Bear Creek Development Authority's fishing cabins, will be exempt from the additional tax.
"We're just looking at the dollars from the hotels and the motels," Morrow said.