SNOW HILL – The Town of Ocean City’s plans to increase room tax have been put on hold until next year.
Though the Worcester County Commissioners agreed in January to ask the state for the ability to raise the room tax – an initiative pushed by the Town of Ocean City – they confirmed this week it would not happen this legislative session.
“It’s something that’s probably going to be looked at next year,” said Commissioner Joe Mitrecic.
After increasing the room tax from 4.5% to 5% in 2019, resort officials last year asked the county to seek the authority to raise the room tax to up to 6%. In January, the commissioners agreed to ask for a change in state law that would give the county the authority to increase the tax. As Del. Wayne Hartman prepared the legislation, however, officials learned that the proposed change would need the support of three other Eastern Shore counties – Kent, Caroline and Queen Anne’s. That’s because Worcester is a code home rule county. While that gives the county broad legislative authority, under the state’s constitution code counties are not allowed to levy any tax without a general law enacted that applies to all code counties in their class. Worcester is clustered with Kent, Queen Anne’s and Caroline counties. As a result, the county needs their support on the legislation.
“By the time we got working on this there was not enough time to build the consensus we need,” said Weston Young, the county’s chief administrative officer. “We will be working with our fellow code home rule counties on the Eastern Shore to try to make this bill successful during the next legislative session.”