Carbon County business owners say they would support separating from Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau if the county and the bureau can't reach a deal on the hotel tax revenue by the end of the month.

On Thursday, four Kidder Township and Lake Harmony business owners approached the Carbon County commissioners in support of their efforts to negotiate a better deal for the 3 percent hotel tax revenue collected on all hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and vacation properties in the county.Carbon County collects approximately $700,000 annually from the tax and currently receives 50 percent to use toward Mauch Chunk Lake Park and a grant program for nonprofit organizations that promote tourism, but a drop in that percentage is being proposed by the visitors bureau.Barbara Franzosa of Kidder Township said several businesses and residents in the Kidder Township area are following the county's talks with PMVB about the hotel tax.The current proposal on the table is for the county to receive 20 percent of the first $500,000 collected and 10 percent after that. This means the revenue coming back to Carbon from the hotel tax would drop from approximately $350,000 annually to around $120,000, the commissioners said two weeks ago. The commissioners are opposed to the plan."I just want to say we support you totally if you should decide to run our county hotel tax within our own county," Franzosa said, adding that before PMVB took over as the tourism promotion agency for the county, there was a tourism building in Kidder Township for the Western Poconos, but it had been closed.Tourism in the county"We do get a lot of tourists so we would like to see more money spent right here in Carbon County for our tourism," she said.Ellyn McGinnis of Bluestone Real Estate in Lake Harmony, and Greg Petrillo of Pocono Mountain Rentals, both agreed with Franzosa's thoughts."We do a lot of business in Lake Harmony and Kidder Township and we would like to see some of the money we collect from our tenants coming back to benefit our county and our township," she said.Petrillo said that he supports decertifying PMVB as the county's tourism promotion agency if Carbon County cannot reach a fair agreement on the hotel tax revenue."I think it would serve Carbon County well and I think we could probably manage those services here with the chamber," he said."I just think it's unfair that they look at Monroe County, where you got the casino and you got so much more there, maybe that 80-20 split and 10 percent works there, but Carbon County is a different animal," said Angelo Dubravski of Kerry Clean Services, speaking about the current offer on the table."We're definitely behind you guys breaking away and you would have support from the businesses up there if you need any help."We would like to see this money stay in our community or at least our county and not flushed out somewhere else," he said.The commissioners thanked the business owners for offering their opinions and said they are standing their ground because what is being offered will not work well in the county.If Carbon would sign the current offer, the commissioners would have to decide whether that 20 percent would continue to go to fund Mauch Chunk Lake Park or continue the grant program for the area, but it couldn't do both.Carbon vs. other countiesCommissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that Carbon County has yet to get any offer in writing from the visitors bureau."We keep telling them over and over again," he said. "They have not come back with a counter offer. I strongly feel they pitted Carbon County against the other counties who had different agreements and failed to negotiate with all four counties at the same time."Pike and Wayne counties have signed memorandums of understanding, Nothstein said, adding the he heard Monroe was close to it as well.Nothstein then brought up the train station in Jim Thorpe, which the county owns and allows PMVB to use as an office for free.He said he has not been happy because the bureau does not allow businesses to put brochures in the station unless they become a member, sometimes spending upward of $5,000 in membership costs.He apologized to the businesses for not pushing the matter harder than he had done in the past and said that if they want their voices heard to call PMVB."Enough is enough and I certainly hope PMVB gets the message," Nothstein said. "We will not settle for less than what we requested. We will not settle for that 10 percent over $500,000. It's not going to happen."Commissioners William O'Gurek and Thomas J. Gerhard also weighed in on the matter.O'Gurek again said that if no agreement between the two parties is reached by the end of March, Carbon County will not remit any hotel tax money collected for the first quarter of the year to PMVB.Examining partnershipHe also said that if no agreement is reached, he believes the board will be taking the step to see how the 23 municipalities feel about the partnership and may possibly take action to bring the operation back to Carbon County instead, possibly in the form of a committee between the county, chamber and area businesses on way to utilize the tax money collected on various things within the county."The hotel tax money is extremely important to us and we want to make sure we continue to take care of the nonprofit organizations we have been taking care of," Gerhard said. "$700,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau takes in. We're going to stand firm."Earlier this month, Carl Wilgus, president and CEO of Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, said that the bureau was still hopeful that an acceptable arrangement can be worked out.The renegotiation of the memorandum of understanding regarding the revenue of the hotel tax collections came about last year when new legislation amended the current hotel tax law in place.The current agreement between Carbon and the visitor's bureau has been in place since 2007 when the former board of commissioners negotiated the 50 percent revenue instead of the initial 20 percent proposed.