LFC Comments by the Brian Massie, Executive Director

We have written many articles about the Lake County Visitors Bureau, and have expressed concerns that since they receive over a million dollars a year from the Hotel Excise Tax (a.k.a. Bed Tax) collected by the County and given to the Visitors Bureau, they should be subject to the Ohio Sunshine laws. We contend that they must be accountable to the people since they have accepted public funds!

We base our reasoning on the IRS ruling for a 501 (c) (6) Non-Profit organization that the majority of the Visitors Bureau’s revenue must come from membership dues.

“Business league exempt under code section 501 (c) (6) organization is a membership organization characteristically supported by dues. Although an organization may receive substantial portion or even the primary part of its income from non-member sources, membership support, either in the form of dues paid to or involvement in the organization’s activities, must be meaningful.”

Regretfully, the three Lake County Commissioners do not agree with us for several reasons.

(1) They have been told by the Prosecutor’s Office that the IRS considers the Hotel Tax a “contribution or gift” from the public.

“Membership support includes the following items:

• Amounts derived from the performing the organization’s exempt functions from substantially related activities
• Contributions or gifts from the general public”

(2) Commissioner John Plecnik expressed his concern in a Commissioners’ meeting that requiring the Visitors Bureau to public records requests would be too expensive for the Visitors Bureau, and they are accountable to the people since the Commissioners get to appoint 3 of the 9 Board Members. [By the way, Commissioner Plecnik is running for the 4 year Commissioner’s position currently held by Commissioner Young. He will be opposed by Willowick Mayor, Rich Regovich in the May primary.]

(3) Both Commissioner Plecnik and outgoing Commissioner Ron Young expressed great admiration for the great work that is being done by the Visitors Bureau in promoting the wineries in the area.

(4) Commissioner Hamercheck, a real law and order guy, stated that although he knows that the money could be given to another entity, he must follow the directive that Prosecutor Chuck Coulson has given to the Assistant Prosecutor Dave Hackman, and he dutifully ignores the needs of the people.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, the Lake County’s Commissioners and Prosecutor consider taxes merely “contributions or gifts from the citizens”.

LFC will be asking all Commissioner candidates in 2022 their position on this issue.

This problem could be solved by the 9 board members agreeing to amend their by-laws to subject the Visitors Bureau to the Ohio Sunshine Laws. If they have nothing to hide, why is their such strenuous objections? [Reason: It has been whispered to me by public officials, that a certain board member, well-connected politically, has such disdain for LFC that she does not want to give LFC a “win”!]

The following is the Visitors Bureau’s form 990 filed with the IRS. See page #2 for their income amount and classification.

Here are the documents supplied to LFC by Assistant Prosecutor Dave Hackman supporting the notion that “taxes are contributions”.

*****

Categories: Lake, Ohio Counties, Uncategorized