Room tax rate may bump up to 5% in Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, Md. – The room tax rate may be on the rise in Ocean City.

During a recent meeting, the town council started the conversation and is now looking to bump the rate from 4.5 to 5%.

Mayor Rick Meehan says that the increase could bring in around $1.3 million and adds that it hasn’t been done since 2008. If it were to happen and the council moved forward, the money generated would go to cover the cost of things such as special events.

Mayor Meehan says, “We don’t want to do it unless we know exactly how we are going to allocate the funding that we have concurrence on how we are going to do that and how that’s going to benefit the tax payers and general fund but also benefits are resort community. We want to keep ocean city as affordable as possible but we want to do the promotion, do advertising and maintain the services that people expect when they get here.”

Mayor Meehan tells us they still need to discuss this idea with their partners like the chamber of commerce to see how they feel about it since their businesses would be affected.

We’re told right now is the best time to talk about a possible increase because budget deliberations won’t start until March or April.