Representatives of the 500-member Hawaii Hotel Association say they are still opposed to any type of visitor tax because there are no guarantees that the money raised would be used to benefit the tourist industry.
The reaffirmation by the hotel industry lobby today probably sounded the death knell for the controversial hotel room tax in this session of the state Legislature.
This is because Gov. George Ariyoshi has maintained he will continue to oppose the hotel room tax as long as the visitor industry says it doesn’t want it. …
Greg Fontes, general manager of the Holiday Isle Hotel, said the hotel lobby’s position is supported also by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau and the Waikiki Improvement Association. Both groups voiced their opposition to the tax Jan. 14.
At a news conference this morning, Fontes, who also is the hotel lobby’s public affairs chairman, once again repeated the visitor industry belief that the hotel room tax is “discriminatory and unfair.”
“As it is, Hawaii’s visitor industry pays the 4 percent excise tax like everyone else,” Fontes said. “In fiscal 1982, this amounted to $420 million or 30 percent of the state’s excise tax revenues.”
As for reports of a difference of opinion on the tax between the association and its membership, Fontes said the hotel lobby now is unified in its opposition because lawmakers were unable to promise hotel owners and operators that the money raised by the new tax would be set aside permanently for the visitor industry.
Lawmakers at the State Capitol say that such a demand is considered unreasonable because no law or tax is sacred.
Senate President Richard S.H. Wong, the Legislature’s leading hotel room tax proponent, maintains that the Senate will probably again pass the tax bill as it did last year despite opposition from the hotel lobby because the measure is a good way to raise new revenues.
Wong’s bill would double the 4 percent excise tax on hotel rooms with a portion of the money used to buy beachfront land for public recreation purposes, to upgrade current tourist destination areas and to support the state’s tourism promotional efforts.
