The Virginia Beach Hospitality Political Action Committee (PAC) is a non-partisan committee that encourages discussion vital to the positive growth of the hospitality industry in Virginia Beach. The PAC is an independent organization supporting incumbents and candidates whose positions are consistent with the PAC and the Virginia Beach Hotel Association (VBHA)
Virginia Beach Tourism Authority: The City of Virginia Beach requests the General Assembly enact legislation to create the Virginia Beach Tourism Authority.
Landlord Tenant Law and Lodging: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC is opposed to the alteration of the 90-day threshold for transiency at hotels and motels. Applying landlord tenant law to these establishments prior to the 90-daylimit creates additional obligations and constraints on lodging businesses. Hotels are focused on serving short-term guests, not permanent residents. It would also undermine the collection of sales and lodging taxes, and jeopardize tourism promotion revenues. Moreover,it would subvert the ability to combat human trafficking, and other illegal activities effectively and expediently.
Workforce Matters: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC believes Virginia is the number one state to do business. The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports Virginia as a right-to-work state, and opposes any efforts to expand burdensome requirements on business owners, such as predictive scheduling, mandatory paid leave, etc.
Minimum Wage: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports efforts to further delay the minimum wage increase that was enacted during the 2020 session and the Commonwealth initiating a study on the economic impact before moving forward with any escalation and opposes any efforts to give jurisdictions the authority to impose a minimum wage greater than the federal guideline.
Tipped Wage/Tip Credit: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports and accepts existing federal law for tipped employees that provides strong protection to ensure they never earn less than the applicable minimum wage and is opposed to increases to the tipped wage. The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC opposes efforts to reduce or eliminate the tipped credit. Tip credit should increase dollar for dollar with any increase in the minimum wage.
Transportation: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports an effective and comprehensive statewide and regional solution to transportation, designed to employ multi-modal transit, new technologies and innovative ideas. The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC opposes any taxes targeting a single industry to attempt to fund transportation initiatives.
Tourism Promotion: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports continued state tourism promotion by the Virginia Tourism Corporation and favors maintaining it at a level no lower than $30 million annually and requests an additional $11 million to be allocated to the VTC for marketing purposes to attract first time visitors to Virginia and to enhance our leverage marketing program. The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC also continues to support the legislative initiatives of the Virginia Tourism Corporation. The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC also supports local tourism promotion efforts be maintained at levels to support tourism marketing.
OTA/OTC: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC maintains that lodging should not be liable for collecting or remitting taxes on behalf of an intermediary. The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC opposes preferential tax treatment of intermediaries that would not also apply to lodging.
School Calendar: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports the current law precluding Virginia schools from beginning any earlier than 14 days prior to Labor Day.
Taxation: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC opposes single industry taxes aimed at the hospitality industry, such as meals taxes, transient occupancy taxes, and admissions taxes, unless there is support from the industry and the revenue generated is intended to generate visitation in the areas the taxes are being levied. Additionally, the Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC is opposed to the imposition of any COVID-19 related unemployment insurance taxes on businesses to replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.
Immigration: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC supports the continued viability of the H2-B and J1 Visa programs as they support the workforce initiatives in the hospitality industry.
Short-Term Online Rental Market: The Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC maintains that Short-Term Online Rental Market companies should compete on a level playing field and be subject to the same laws and regulations as other businesses competing in the lodging and residential building industries. However, the Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC opposes attempts to operate residential buildings or other mass occupied non-transient establishments as short-term online rentals in a de facto hotel manner. Further, the Virginia Beach Hospitality PAC opposes any effort from short-term online rental market companies to collect and remit taxes, on behalf of the short-term online rental operators utilizing their websites, through agreements that restrict data transparency and auditability.