In the heart of Pennsylvania’s Brecknock Township, Jeana Linzy and her husband have been operating the Red Run Campground for approximately seven years.
Providing access to a pool, a recreation hall, and 140 campsites, Red Run Campground is a popular destination, especially during holiday weekends.
However, an admissions tax imposed by the township since 2020 has added an unexpected burden on both the campgrounds and the campers.
The 2% admissions tax, has been challenging for the Linzy family business. Jeana Linzy articulated her concerns about the tax, saying, “We can’t increase our prices more because we had to put this tax on,”
“We’ve just had to make our overall experience more expensive without making any more profit, you know, so it’s just really hurting the consumer.”
This imposition of tax on private campgrounds was made possible by a state law dating back to 1965. The law permits municipalities to levy taxes on “sales of admission to places of amusement,” a category that includes family-owned or corporate-owned private campgrounds.
However, private campgrounds in other municipalities have been spared from such taxation, which has led to an uneven application of the law.
This disparity has caught the attention of state Representative David Zimmerman, a Republican from East Earl, who has proposed a bill to amend this decades-old law. Zimmerman’s proposed legislation aims to prohibit municipalities from charging admission taxes on privately owned campgrounds.
“It’s a tax that’s being levied that was never intended in the original bill,” Zimmerman said. “Also, out of fairness, some municipalities are taxing these campgrounds while others are not.”
A supervisor of Brecknock, Jerry Long, explained that the admissions tax was introduced in 2020 as a substitute for the revenue lost from the closing of a local golf course. He said that the tax amounts to approximately $50,000 annually, which is invested back into the township’s public park. Long voiced his concern over the possibility of a hike in real estate taxes if the admissions tax is repealed.
Jason Vaughan, the executive director of the Campground Owners Association, believes that the taxing of campgrounds may be a response to the financial strain municipalities have faced due to the pandemic.
Vaughan highlighted that the law, although several decades old, has only recently been applied to campgrounds. This, he warns, could discourage families with tight budgets from choosing camping as a leisure activity.
Vaughan also pointed out that when the law was first introduced, there were far fewer private campgrounds, and Pennsylvania’s neighboring states do not levy similar charges. He said, “So there’s that whole thing with that competition too, you know, trying to encourage people to camp in Pennsylvania.”
Zimmerman’s proposal, which seeks to foster a more equitable tax environment for private campgrounds, has been referred to the House Local Government committee as of June 2. There is also news of a companion bill being planned in the Senate by Senator Chris Gebhard, a Republican from Lebanon County.
Featured image from Red Run Campground.
