LOGAN — The allocation of the lodging tax in Hocking County, given the growing tourist activity surrounding its state parks, has become a hot-button issue covered in The Logan Daily News.
Many residents, including those who have written to the paper, have taken particular issue with the county’s use of the tax, a 3% excise on all overnight stays. The vast majority of this, per Ohio Revised Code (ORC) regulations, goes toward the county’s convention and visitor bureau, the Hocking Hills Tourism Association (HHTA).
The amount the HHTA receives is published in its yearly report to the commissioners, and is available publicly in its Form 990s to the IRS. In 2023, that number was a smidge over $2.5 million.
What this article will shed light on, though, is the lesser-known 3% lodging excise that is directed to individual townships. This excise is paid directly to the township that a given short-term rental or hotel resides in.
The money is appropriated into the township’s general fund, and is designed to offset some of the infrastructural burdens that increased tourism may cause.
The Logan Daily News communicated with all 11 township fiscal officers (FOs) for this article; it revealed where the greatest number of tourists are staying nightly, as well as a deep disparity in respective townships’ budgets.
All figures herein refer to 2023’s lodging tax collection, unless stated otherwise.
For reference, one might compare Benton Township, home of Old Man’s Cave and other popular destinations, with Ward Township, in the far east of the county. Benton collected $602,042.67, per its FO, Cynthia Huffman; according to FO Kelly Maiden, Ward collected approximately $12,000.
Across the board, FOs reported the majority of their lodging tax money going into the maintenance of township roads. In wealthier townships, this often involves the replacement of gravel roads with chip-and-seal or higher quality asphalt.
It may also include the purchase of new equipment such as tractors, or the paying of salaries, insurance, and utilities, according to Huffman.
Benton is not the only township facing high tourist activity and subsequent revenue. Falls Township, home to most of Logan, collected approximately $500,000, said its FO, Kim Edgar. Laurel Township, north of Benton, collected $404,110.17. In south central Hocking County, Washington Township took in $360,375.
While no other townships fall as low as Ward, there are a couple other outliers on the low end of revenue. Starr, bordering Washington, collected only 42,911.67 last year. Salt Creek, in the southwest corner of the county, sat at approximately $60,000.
Despite a doubling of that figure over the past seven years, according to Salt Creek FO Makiah Seifert, it is still just a tenth of what neighboring Benton brings in yearly.
The remaining four townships sit somewhere in the middle, still significantly less than their wealthier counterparts. Good Hope and Perry townships., in the north and west corners of the county, brought in just about $166,000 each.
Marion and Green, on the east end of the county, received $166,420 and approximately $104,000, respectively.
In total, the 11 townships brought in roughly $2.53 million, with four of them providing close but approximate figures. In total, the county took in over $100,000 more, a figure that should theoretically be the same: $2,675,739.02, per Josh Givens, Hocking’s Lodging Tax Administrator.
“We’ve had issues with tracking rentals, to make sure they’re paying (their equal share),” said Green Township Trustee John Fuller. “Places that are often booked seem to pay very little.”
As it stands, a given short-term rental owner is required to submit their lodging tax separately: one check to the county, and one to the township in which their lodging is located. This could be one reason for any disparity between the two figures.
That finding aside, it is worth considering the vast disparity among the different townships.
It reveals that the severe concentration of tourist activity is not only a problem of Hocking County in relation to its neighbors — a point raised in previous county commissioner meetings by, for instance, the Outdoor Recreational Council of Appalachia (ORCA) — but in highly specific areas of the county itself. Roughly 75% of the county’s total overnight revenue comes from four of its 11 townships.
This is, at its most basic, a question of where lodging is located, but also raises the question of how the county and state could invest in destinations outside the heart of the Hocking Hills.
Something like the long-awaited Hocking Valley Scenic Trail from Logan — through Green and Ward Twps to Nelsonville, whose setbacks in support funding have been covered in the Logan Daily dating to 2017 — might provide a model for healthy development of tourism in the county beyond its most saturated destinations.
Email at rmorris@logandaily.com
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