Campground owners lament 'tax free' loss

The addition of campgrounds to the definition of a hotel under the meals and rooms tax in House Bill 2, signed into law on June 30, 2009, is still causing quite a stir for local campground owners and managers.
“It wasn’t talked about. It wasn’t debated. We weren’t represented. There was never any dialogue between the New Hampshire Campground Owner’s Association and the government,” said one local campground manager.
Bob French, the owner of Mile-Away Campground in Henniker and the Vice President of the New Hampshire Campground Owner’s Association, found out about the addition of campgrounds to the tax through watching WMUR-TV as the bill was getting ready to go into the legislator for the final vote. He then called the Executive Director, Gregg Pitman, who had not known of the change in the tax either.
With the bill being at that stage, the only thing legislators could do was vote “nay” on the entire budget. “There was no chance to amend it,” stated Gary Richardson (D) of Hopkinton.
““When it comes to the final role you bite the bullet when you vote even when you don’t agree [on certain things] or else there’s no budget,” explains Phil Harvey (D) who represents Hillsborough and Antrim and was opposed to the 9% tax on campgrounds.
“I don’t think it was an appropriate tax to add on. I might have accepted it at 3% but they added 9% in one fell swoop,” he says and adds that it was “not the best” tax to add on.
According to Barbara French (D) of Henniker, the House had other proposals that the Senate and the governor didn’t want such as a gasoline tax, state tax, and a capital gains tax.
She explains that putting together this year’s budget was extraordinarily difficult.
“We don’t have a broad based tax so we have to go to the small things,” she says, “I feel sorry for the campgrounds, believe me I do, but we needed to pass the budget.”
Unfortunately, no apology will fix the confusion surrounding local campgrounds.
“From an employee standpoint, the state hasn’t given us a clearly formatted document that stipulates what is and is not taxed. They haven’t even updated their website; it still says 8%, and it still explicitly says that campgrounds are not included [in the meals and rooms tax],” stated an office assistant at one local campground.
It has been made clear through New Hampshire Campground Owner’s Association meetings that all open campsites that are used for daily, weekly or monthly rental are made to pay the 9% tax. However, there is a cloud of haze surrounding the question of seasonal campsites.
Currently, the state has explained that if the camping season is 185 days or more, then seasonal sites will not be charged the tax. However, explains Tom Irving, owner of Oxbow Campground in Deering, most camping seasons only last 184 days.
This is a problem that Bob French is trying to work out with the government right now, as his campground’s season is one day short of the limit. The Department of Revenue Administration has not finalized its policies, and until they do, Bob French says he is unable set his rates or have new seasonal contracts.
“The biggest stress is in the depressed economy we’re in, how can we raise our rates when they’re already being raised 9%?” he rhetorically asks.
Since the tax was implemented on July 1st, one day after the budget was signed into law and two days after being notified of the tax in the mail, 15 seasonals, pulled out of Oxbow Campground and Irving says that he has also lost a lot of reservations. However, due to the fact that he has a waiting list, he was able to recover from the large loss of campers.
“A lot of people do this because it’s the only way they can vacation with their families,” says Bob French, and now they “get less time for their money.”
One local campground manager is still puzzled by how campgrounds fit into the meals and rooms tax. “It’s certainly not a meal, they bring their own room, what are you charging them for, the dirt, the sand, what is it?” he asks.
Derek Owen (D) of Hopkinton understands his questions and thought that adding campgrounds to the definition to a hotel was “stretching it”, yet voted for the budget to “move things along.”
“I don’t feel that there shouldn’t be one, I just thought the way they did it wasn’t done properly,” explains Irving.
Christine Hamm (D) of Hopkinton, stated that she is very conscious about making our state attractable and realizes that New Hampshire is dependent on tourism money. With that, the way that campgrounds were added to the meals and rooms tax was a concern for her, as it gave the state bad publicity. However, as the other local representatives stated, she also did not feel that there were a lot of options, and states that you’re “not going to please everyone with a bill that size.”
“We’re trying to keep New Hampshire afloat,” says Harvey, “People think Democrats want to spend money and raise taxes and that’s just not true. Definitely not true.”
Harvey, along with Owen, Hamm, Barbara French, and others are all singing the tune of an income or sales tax to solve the state’s money problems.
As one local campground manager summed it up, “it’s not tax free New Hampshire anymore.”
All of our local representatives voted for the passing of HB2 which includes: Ron Mack (D), Gil Shattuck (D), and Phil Harvey (D) of Hillsborough and Antrim; Catriona Beck (D) and Claudia Chase (D) of Deering; Christine Hamm (D), Derek Owen (D), and Gary Richardson (D) of Hopkinton; and Barbara French (D) and Beth Rodd (D) of Henniker; as well as our local senators, Harold Janeway (D) and Sylvia Larsen (D).