Plans to mandate $750K in tourism spending in Harford County vetoed again
HARFORD COUNTY -- Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly for the second time vetoed legislation that would direct $750,000 in hotel tax revenue to a non-government entity and implement a tourism spending mandate, his office said Wednesday.
According to the County Executive, the bill is the County Council's second attempt to impose a spending mandate for tourism marketing that "...usurps the executive branch's responsibility under the charter for developing the county budget and providing oversight of taxpayer funds."
Cassilly vetoed a similar bill that was introduced by the council in January. However, the current bill specifies that the county's former tourism marketing agency, Visit Harford, would receive the tax revenue.
The 6% hotel tax went into effect in January 2017 after a bill passed that required a portion of the revenue be used to fund tourism and related activities in the county.
According to the County Executive, the current bill violates the County Charter and bypasses bidding and other regulations that are used to ensure fairness and transparency for purchases funded by taxpayers.
"The fact that a specific non-governmental entity is named in the current bill does not make it legal," County Executive Cassilly said. "I have a sworn duty to ensure accountability for taxpayer dollars and to uphold the charter and that is exactly what I will continue to do. This bill is inconsistent with good governance and an affront to fiscal responsibility."
Visit Harford was created in 2014 and had served as the county's tourism marketing organization since then. But, rather than outsource those responsibilities, Cassilly moved tourism in-house under the county's Department of Economic Development. The department issues contracts for specific marketing services.
County Council Moves to Overturn Veto
Harford County Councilman Aaron Penman expressed his disappointment and said the council would move to overturn the county executive's veto.
"This bill was designed to encourage and support Harford County tourism, utilizing a previously proven and reliable Harford County community partner, Visit Harford," Councilman Penman said in a statement.
The bill was passed by all current council members after a public input period, according to the statement.
Penman said Maryland legislation does not prevent tourism revenue from being allocated to nonprofits to support the local community.
"...the County Executive's veto message is full of red herring content, designed to distract and mislead the community," Councilman Penman said in his statement.
"The veto effort by the County Executive has nothing to do with ensuring that procurement procedures or state law are followed; it has everything to do with growing big government and consuming more and more power and control by the County Executive," Penman said.
Visit Harford Lawsuit
In January 2024, Visit Harford sued Cassilly and his administration for breach of contract and interfering with business relationships.
The lawsuit alleged that the county was required under a contract to pay Visit Harford $645,000 per year in three installments, but the nonprofit was never given the final $215,000.
The lawsuit asks for the third installment with interest, and another $75,000 after Cassilly's administration allegedly instructed a state entity to redirect a tourism grant away from Visit Harford and instead to the county's Department of Economic Development.
"Upon coming into office, the Cassilly administration undertook a review of all county-funded activities. We had concerns about a lack of transparency and effectiveness concerning Visit Harford, but the county executive decided to take a full year to monitor and evaluate this nonprofit model for tourism," Harford County Government Spokesperson Matt Button said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed.
"Over the past year, Harford County has been carefully reviewing all the models for tourism and the one we found to be most transparent and effective is the one used by Baltimore County and most other Maryland jurisdictions," he added.