Another Room Tax Reform Amendment
January 30, 2014
  
Dear WH&LA Lodging Member:

Before today's news is shared, it is important to remind all readers that this communication is written and submitted exclusively for WH&LA's lodging members, and not for non-members, public officials, etc. The last Capitol Insider sent on Room Tax Reform was unfortunately shared with someone's municipality by a well-intentioned member. The municipality then of course shared this inside information with other municipalities. As you know, we share with you some of our strategies and inside information, and this innocent action actually derailed some of our plans, and required new strategies to get us back on track. One could compare this to two competing teams and one of the team members tells an opposing team member what plays his team is planning.
 
We also have recently learned that our Capitol Insider was routed recently to another organization for distribution to their members, which may be viewed as unfair to those of you investing your own resources in WH&LA dues to gain access to our updates.
 
Thus, we respectfully ask that unless specifically suggested otherwise, that WH&LA communications remain within the property who is a lodging member. Thank you kindly for your consideration in allowing us to continue to provide you more comprehensive information under a trust approach.

Today's News 
A second Amendment to AB 385 & SB 301 on Room Tax Reform was introduced late yesterday (Assembly Amendment 2) as pursued by the WH&LA in order to gain more critical support needed to pass the bill out of Assembly Committee and give it a better chance on the floor when it comes up for a vote.

We have prepared a comprehensive overview of just what the new Amendment does, as reading the wording alone will not provide a clear view. This amendment should diffuse some of the primary arguments we are currently facing from municipalities, and may help us to gain sufficient votes.

We will be calling upon everyone shortly to contact specified legislators to urge their support. In the meantime, WH&LA's Action Day next Wednesday, Feb. 5 at the Madison Concourse, could not provide better timing to let state legislators know that we need to reform Wisconsin's Room Tax law. If you have not registered, due to the importance of the best participation possible, we have extended the registration deadline until 4:00 pm tomorrow (Friday). To see more information and to register, go to:http://www.wisconsinlodging.org/actionday. 

Finally, we have updated the list of municipalities that currently retain over 30% of local room tax for their own purposes. The last list we provided required further verifications, and due to some unclear data, to be safe we removed them from the list, so please replace that version with this one.

Thank you for your continued support!