Ocean City Continues Room Tax Increase Talks; Council Seems Supportive Of Hike, But How To Spend New Revenue Remains Unclear

OCEAN CITY — After hours of often-tense debate, resort officials this week chose not to increase the room tax rate in Ocean City in favor of having their counterparts in the county begin to explore the potential change.

During Tuesday’s work session, the debate over potentially increasing the room tax in Ocean City from the current 4.5 percent to an even 5 percent began anew, and after hours of dialogue, no firm decision was reached on the increase. Instead, resort officials voted to have Mayor Rick Meehan write a letter to the Worcester County Commissioners, who would ultimately have to approve the request room tax hike, to gauge their viewpoints on the increase.

The room tax was last raised from 4 percent to 4.5 percent in 2007 and 2 percent of the overall increase was dedicated by ordinance to advertising the marketing the resort. While it appears the majority of the council agrees it is time to revisit the room tax rate after the last increase 12 years ago achieved the desired results, there was no clear consensus on how best to spend the additional revenue the augmentation would create.

Several options were presented on Tuesday, but the bottom line in what is certainly a complicated formula is continuing to dedicate a portion to advertising and marketing while also making a significant contribution to the town’s general fund. The latter would be used to offset the cost of providing services during the growing shoulder seasons and special events.

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