New Hampshire To Increase Meals & Room Tax

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Posted on June 19, 2009 by That's Camping - Miscellaneous

I received an email from the Jacobs Brook Campground asking for help to get the word out on a proposed increase to New Hampshire’s Meals & Room Tax.

Hi. I am contacting you because I know everyone on the site are true camping folks. I have contacted you in the past.

Our campground industry in NH is being threatened by a new tax that was written into a bill at 1:30 AM this morning. The increase to meals and room tax which is proposed to go up to 9 percent will now include all campsites:
Tent, campers, & seasonals… We already pay extra taxes on our land because we have campsites. Some towns are already taxing seasonals, and now our govt. is considering this additional tax. It will in essence “kill” many of the smaller campgrounds which includes mine. We are already struggling to make ends meet due to the gas prices and slow down of camping due to the recession. Same with restaurants and hotels for that matter. We all are hurting and now NH wants some more. We are asking anyone who camps and does not want this tax to be voted in to help us. It slipped in late a night and it goes to vote next week. Please contact your representatives. We need your help.
Thank you

Many thanks,
Pen Maule
http://www.jacobsbrookcampground.com

More online info:

UPDATE: Received an email from another campground with additional information on contact.

HERE IS THE LINK TO GET CONTACT INFORMATION FOR ALL THE STATE
REPRESENTATIVES

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/whosmyleg/

HERE IS THE LINK TO EMAIL THE GOVERNOR

http://www.governor.nh.gov/contactus.htm

I sent off an email to the governor. Don’t know that it will help, since I am not a resident of NH, but it can’t hurt.

7 Comments

Thank you for getting the word out!

I believe this will hurt the industry. Some people who camp usually do so because they are on tight budgets. This will discourage it or perhaps cause people to only camp for a weekend vs. a week.

Posted by Bob (NEC) on 06/20/09
The following is what we sent our State Reps and Senator, as well as reps. for the YMCA, Boy Scouts, AMC, NH Motor Speedway, Campground Owners Assn., WMUR, and the Union Leader:
As registered voters and taxpaying citizens of Bedford, NH we implore you, our elected Representatives and Senator to vote AGAINST the passage of HB 2 as worded by the Committee of Conference this past Fri., 6/19 at 1:30 a.m.

There are so many things wrong with this legislation, too many to list in this e-mail, but there is ONE NEW ITEM we are strongly opposed to: RSA 78-A:6 Meals and Rooms Tax; SPECIFICALLY No. 5 “Definition of Hotel” now includes CAMPSITES.

Are you folks insane? By its own definition, this is a badly worded bill and should be struck down for being completely arbitrary and unfair. I quote from the 6/19 report:
“III. “Hotel” means an establishment which holds itself out to the public by offering sleeping accommodations for rent, whether or not the major portion of its operating receipts is derived from sleeping accommodations.” It goes on to list what the term includes, with CAMPSITES bolded and italicized!

My wife and I have been camping for most of our lives (we are in our 50s) with our parents and now as parents ourselves. We camp nearly every weekend and one full week from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year. How can you RATIONALLY compare a campsite with a hotel, inn, or motel?

When one camps—THEY BRING THEIR OWN ACCOMMODATIONS—be it a tent, tent trailer, or RV. ALL YOU ARE “RENTING” FROM A CAMPGROUND OWNER IS A PATCH OF DIRT OR GRAVEL. (Granted, some campgrounds will rent cabins or RVs, but 99% of their customers come with their own sleeping accommodations.) Not only that, we do our own housekeeping, take out our trash, cook our own meals, and share communal bathrooms. If we are towing a pop-up or RV we are ALREADY paying excise taxes each year to our town and registration fees to NH for BOTH the car and the trailer. Campground owners are ALREADY taxed PER campsite on top of the property taxes they pay.

This is an unjust and NEW tax, because unlike the true hotel & restaurant industry, campgrounds are not going to experience just a 1% increase. THEY ARE GOING TO BE PASSING ON TO THEIR PATRONS A BRAND NEW 9% TAX, WHERE THERE WAS NONE BEFORE. Passage of this bill is going to kill a major portion of NH tourism revenue. It will directly affect an industry that is ALREADY HURTING due to the economy, lagging RV sales and increased gas prices. Camping was one of the few local vacations a family could afford to do and this new tax and all the others are just going to make it more difficult not just for NH families, but for all the out-of-state outdoor enthusiasts whose revenue you love to take.

You realize of course, that it’s not just the public and private family camps that will be affected—if this bill is to become truly effective you MUST ALSO TAX all the church camps, Boy and Girl Scout camps, sports camps, YMCA camps, the huts and tent sites along the Appalachian Trail and the White Mt. National Forest, the parking lots of race tracks such as Rockingham Park and NH Motor Speedway in Loudon (just to name a few). What about State Fairs? There must be 1000’s of RVs that park overnight on NH fair grounds during the season. And don’t forget every Wal-Mart in the state has a parking lot that is an open invitation for RVs to stay overnight. Does NH even have enough employees (what with the proposed budget cutbacks) to monitor all the campsites that could be taxed in this state?

Here’s a suggestion paraphrased from Charles Arlinghaus that appeared in the Union Leader on 6/17/09. The legislature needs more time to review this budget. All the proposed changes and plethora of taxes need to be read, openly debated and the consequences to THE PEOPLE OF NH carefully considered by the full House and Senate—not just a committee. The Governor should act like a LEADER and veto this proposed budget—pass emergency funding at current levels for a couple of months—or long enough to come up with a realistic, balanced budget. And take a lesson from former Gov. Benson and every hardworking family that is struggling in this economy: don’t spend what you don’t have.

Posted by Cheryl & Joe Hannaford on 06/22/09
Awesome, very well said! You make a lot of very good points!

Posted by That's Camping on 06/22/09
Cheryl and Joe—Wow! I couldn’t of said it better myself. Awesome!!! Are you running for office? I’d vote for you. Taxes is not a good solution during a serious recession.

Posted by Bob (NEC) on 06/22/09
Thank you Cheryl and Joe! Also thanks to all of the campers that showed up at the statehouse yesterday. We have to get the word out about this new instant tax and it seems like the media is finally listening. The vote is on Wed. Our Gov. wants the bill passed. Keeping our fingers crossed. Keep speaking your mind!

Posted by Pen Maule on 06/23/09
A lot of great quotes from local campgrounds in this article:

http://www.rvbusiness.com/2009/06/new-hampshire-campgrounds-oppose-9-tax/

more here with some good comments from readers:

http://www.unionleader.com/pda-article.aspx?articleId=f6dc9c9c-8822-40da-9f0c-7c77af3dbbea

Posted by That's Camping on 06/23/09
I am a NH resident and my thanks to the state of NH reps and Gov. for passing the new room and meals tax to include campgrounds.
My family will no longer be able to afford to camp at a private and/or possibly state campground, which we could only do for a few weekends anyway, we will not be going out this holiday weekend.
We are not able to take our children to Disney and such, so we camp in NH, my children enjoy camping and nature.
Too bad Concors had to ruin this for us struggling to provide for their families

Posted by Sharon on 06/30/09