Avon appealing judge’s ruling that bed tax increase was illegal

ELYRIA — The city of Avon is appealing a county judge’s decision that declared a 3 percent bed tax increase imposed last year illegal.

In his decision, handed down earlier this month, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Raymond Ewers wrote that the increase violated a state law that prohibits political subdivisions from imposing a bed tax if the county already is collecting one.

The county collects a 3 percent bed tax that is used to fund Visit Lorain County, which works to promote tourism throughout the county. Avon officials have complained in the past that Visit Lorain County doesn’t do enough to highlight their community.

The city had argued that the law didn’t expressly bar a city from levying an additional bed tax, but Ewers rejected that argument.

“If a county acts first under (the law), then a city or township situated within that county is precluded from enacting a hotel lodging excise tax,” Ewers wrote.

The Ohio Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus sued Avon over the new tax earlier this year.

Avon has collected a 3 percent bed tax since 1999 with the funds collected going into the city’s general fund. Because that tax was imposed under an older law, the organization didn’t contend it was illegal.

But the additional 3 percent tax, which City Council voted to impose last October and began collecting in 2015, wasn’t legal, the association argued, because of a later law that limited municipalities’ ability to collect an additional bed tax.

Half of the new 3 percent bed tax is supposed to go to the city’s general fund, while the rest is supposed to be used to fund an Avon-centric visitors bureau.

Avon Mayor Bryan Jensen said he was disappointed with Ewers’ decision.

He said the city has collected between $80,000 and $90,000 from the new bed tax, although those funds have been held in a separate bank account while the lawsuit was pending. Jensen said the city is asking for a stay that would allow the bed tax to continue to be collected while the appeal is ongoing.

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