Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Hotel and hospitality groups urge council not to fund homelessness plan with targeted hotel tax
Loading...
Summary
Hotel and tourism trade groups told the City Council hearing that funding homelessness or schools solely through a hospitality tax would risk Philadelphia's competitiveness for conventions and put thousands of hospitality jobs at risk; they urged council to consider broader revenue approaches.
Representatives of Philadelphia's hospitality and tourism sector testified April 21 against a targeted hotel/hospitality tax proposed as part of the mayor's revenue package.
Ed Grosz, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, said the industry supports the goal of ending street homelessness but warned that a sector‑specific levy would raise Philadelphia's total hotel tax from 16.25% to 18.25% and could make the city less competitive for conventions and national events. "This would make Philadelphia the most expensive major city for travelers on the East Coast," Grosz said, citing comparisons to peer cities.
Grosz and other industry witnesses said hotels already face numerous local taxes and fees and argued that concentrating the funding burden on the hospitality sector risks job losses for the roughly 76,000 local workers the industry supports. "A targeted tax increase on the hospitality industry places thousands of workers across every ZIP code in Philadelphia at risk," Grosz said.
Industry witnesses urged council to identify alternative revenue sources or to spread the burden across more sectors. They repeated support for the mayor's stated goal — ending street homelessness and expanding shelter capacity — while arguing against financing it solely through hospitality fees.
Council did not act on the hotel tax proposal during the hearing; the committee recessed until April 22 when testimony and deliberations will continue.
