Senator Richard Alloway (R) has sponsored a bill in the state legislature that would allow certain counties to increase their hotel taxes. If enacted, Senate Bill 838 would open the door to raising the tax visitors pay for hotel stays from 3 percent to 5 percent in applicable counties. And that’s in addition to the tax the state levies.
Currently, the state collects a 6-percent tax from visitors staying in hotel rooms. Targeted legislation allowed about a dozen counties to levy an additional, local hotel tax. In 2000, Act 142 allowed the remaining counties to apply a 3-percent tax to hotel stays. Currently 53 of 67 counties in the state have a 3-percent local hotel tax.
Senate Bill 838 initially focused on raising the hotel tax in only Franklin County, but amendments have broadened it to include York, Schuylkill, Butler, Washington, and Indiana Counties, as well as Bensalem Township.
Read a full version of this reportat the website of Keystone Crossroads, a new statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities
