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On an Island
This past Wednesday, I drove all the way to Augusta to testify in favor of LD 746, Rep. Gary Friedmann's legislation to allow local municipalities to approve a 2% Local Options Lodging Tax (LOLT) on all short term (under 30 days) stays.
I took time out of my busy schedule because I believe this would help not only Bar Harbor, but other similar communities....communities that drive revenue for the state, but are drastically underserved by the state's archaic revenue sharing formula.
I wanted to share the following snippet from my testimony:
"Bar Harbor’s businesses, most of whom are owned and operated by year-round residents, find themselves under constant attack. Hospitality & tourism, the lifeblood of our economy, has become divisive in Bar Harbor. While I may not always agree with some members of my community, they are still my neighbors. We all live in a tourist destination, but for some, they do not benefit from the vibrant tourism and hospitality scene. That’s because Bar Harbor, and other coastal towns, do not get their fair cut of the revenue sharing from Augusta. The state’s lack of proper revenue sharing has caused some residents in Bar Harbor to become (at times) hostile towards tourism."
And that final point is why I am writing this letter to all of you, my neighbors. We can all disagree on many topics (cruise ships, STRs, school bonds, etc), but at the end of the day, we as a community MUST rally around the simple fact that our problems are with Augusta, not with each other. We, as a town, are always in the top 3 of taxable revenue for the state of Maine, but find ourselves 115th out of 486th in terms of revenue sharing amongst other municipalities. That is why your property taxes go up double digits every year. That is why allowing municipalities the right to enact a LOLT (or not) is paramount. Why should we not have this opportunity for financial autonomy?
Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, and MDI as a whole drive much of the visitation to this state. Even if they are staying in other towns, MDI is often either their main or significant destination. LOLT would allow Bar Harbor, and all other communities, to decide for themselves if a 2% tax on lodging is appropriate, or not. However, after my testimony to the Tax Committee, and listening to others (including trade associations I am members of) speak against the LOLT, it was evident - Augusta does not care about Bar Harbor. We are Cinderella to the rest of the state. They see us as the belle of the ball, riding around in magic pumpkins. When in all actuality, we are the chamber maid mopping after our stepsisters. Augusta is not coming to our rescue, nor are they ever going to see Bar Harbor problems as their problems. Senator Bickford even mocked us for getting rid of cruise ships, insinuating that we already had the funds we needed.
We are figuratively, and literally, on an island. This should be a wake-up call to all residents that we cannot continue fighting, and we have to work together. We aren't a joke to the rest of the state. Its just that they don't care about our plight. We must open revenue streams for the town, not close them. (This goes beyond, but does include, cruise ships.) We must work towards financially sound spending, across the entire budget, instead of the perceived blank check we so often feel we are writing. We must make factually-supported decisions at the ballot box (and town meeting) that serve the betterment of Bar Harbor as a whole. We must refrain from allowing our feelings and fear-based rhetoric to tear each other apart. I have always said that Bar Harbor, and MDI, is a special place to work and call home. We must work together as neighbors, not adversaries. There's no financial life boat headed to this island. We must all pick up an oar, and start rowing in the same direction, as a one community. That's the only way we will make it out of the choppy waters alive.
—Bo Jennings is the director of operations for SSC Hospitality and president of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and a year-round resident of Bar Harbor
A warm and fuzzy philosophy, espoused by a prime mover in the inappropriately named Bar Harbor CoC that has far more off island members than locals. They may be unique in that. They pander to cruise ships and go just about totally dark in the off season. This chamber. denies the financial impact of natural beauty, refuses to celebrate it, but soe e 2 million plus get it and flock here to spend far more time than the few hours speed dating visitors are allloted and as long as pristine exists we're in great shape. Meanwhile, what's crucial to the well being of the 10,000 year round residents, hardy souls this chamber purposefully ignores, is maintaining this as a sanctuary for those visitors looking for nothing to do except relax, recharge, and revel in sweet silence as they revitalize while hiking our trails and bicycling on traffic free carriage roads. The super hardy and very youn Ig, splash in our icy cold, crystal clear waters, some with lips as blue as the sky. The seafaring skim on top of the mighty Atlantic braced by brine's crisp cleanliness. That this chamber ignores every bit of this doesn't matter as natural beauty is a magnet. Nature built it and they will keep coming as long as it exists. All the while this chamber, a woe begotten group if ever there was one, fights tooth and nail for an industry that pollutes with virtual abandon. Whatever $ they put in our banks accounts isn't worth the filthy mess they create and do a piss poor job to remediate.
The Chamber of Commerce should travel en masse to Florida. Perhaps Disneyworld or Universal Studios would welcome them as Chamber members are quick to respond to Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching more than the laments of year-round Bar Harbor residents who did not ask the Chamber to turn their town into a cash register for tourism and Augusta.
But, if Bar Harbor is going to host hundreds of thousands of tourists each year then the tourists should bear the financial costs of coming, not the town residents. A local tax would help take the burden of tourism related costs off the backs of homeowners. Residents pay high property taxes which subsidize the cost of hosting tourists (more police, higher transfer station costs, higher infrastructure costs for sewer improvements and maintenance, and more). The local tax would defray some of those costs; it would not stop tourists from crowding the streets and spending their money, as some would have you believe. If the Chamber of Commerce were to travel to Florida, members would find that local county taxes in Florida do not stop tourists from going there. But then they already know that.