The town of Salem, Massachusetts has a revenue problem (don’t we all?). The local government’s cost of living exceeds its income. They need a solution. Cut spending? No. Raise taxes? Taxes are too high. Hey, let’s tax tourism some more! How about a ticket tax?
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New Hampshire is familiar with that idea. We have a rooms and meals tax that targets tourists. But I doubt that was the inspiration. Other towns in Massachusetts have taken this tack, so the reporting goes. Salem is just the latest city in the ‘cradle of liberty’ to propose such an excise.
City Council’s finance will hold a meeting to look at a proposed, local tax on entertainment tickets. Councilor Tom Furey proposed the initiative last week as a way to reduce the tax burden on residents. …Other Massachusetts have passed similar taxes, usually adding a locally-collected surcharge to tickets for museums, concerts and other live performances.
Salem proposed this tax back in 2002. The voters approved it, but after some pushback from vendors, they scrapped the idea. But government spending never sleeps. The tax has risen from the dead to claim the brains of fresh victims — a tax on its lifeblood.
“Salem really depends on its lifeline. Its lifeblood is tourism, and to strap a tax on top of it would be detrimental,” Furey said. “We need tourists to come to Salem without roadblocks.”
It sounds to me like you need a local government that can run more efficiently. As we are fond of repeating up here in Cow Hampshire. Low taxes come from low spending.
If you are truly concerned about the tax burden and the appeal of tourism you’d take a scalpel to local government before you take it to visitors wallets.
