Strange to single out skiing of all things for this tax. As others said, looks like they are targeting tourists, and hotels/meal taxes are already in place. Does anyone know if New Hampshire has a car rental tax? I guess they figured since hotels/meals are already taxed, there weren't a lot of other choices to try and tax that heavily skews tourist. Rental cars would seem like an obvious one if that isn't already heavily taxed in NH.
As a tourist, I really get frustrated by high taxes that are in place to soak tourists. That said, as long as the tax isn't completely outrageous, I end up sucking it up and usually quickly forgetting about it when I am on vacation.
There is a 9% tax on car rentals, though not sure what percentage of our out of state skiers fly into MHT/LEB vs drive. I would think that regional visitors vastly outnumber people who fly in. Leisure travelers in/out of MHT are down drastically over the past decade.
You are right that there is not much more to single out and tax around out of state recreation. Out of state snowmobile, boat, and ATV users pay $87-$97/yr for the privilege.
Tourism is the states second largest industry, so I can see why some think taxing lift tickets the next logical progression to fund state programs. We don’t need to look further than Keno or sports betting though to see how a ‘tax’ directed to fund a specific program falls well short though.
That said - going back to my other thread - will an out of state family decide to go to Stowe rather than Loon and pay a 9% room and meal tax, plus a 5% sales tax on the lift ticket and whatever else they will buy because of this? Will a local kid who’s in the after-school ski program at Pat’s, or Whaleback, or Eustis still be able to attend?