Hingham's Board of Selectmen tonight will decide whether to support a "local option" tax on restaurant meals. If they approve, the issue will go to Town Meeting next month.
The state increased the tax on restaurant meals last year from 5% to 6.25%, and it authorized communities to add an additional .75% to the tab as a new stream of local revenue. (Correction: the original post erroneously stated the meals tax rate as 6.5%.)
The South Shore Chamber of Commerce and the Hingham Business Council have urged the selectmen to drop the idea. Restaurants are among the businesses that have been hard hit by the economy. They're an important source of local jobs. And successful restaurants are a big part of the success of the Derby Street Shoppes and the Queen Anne's Corner area, Hingham Square, and soon we expect the Hingham Shipyard as well. Making those businesses less competitive with restaurants across the town line would not be a good move for Hingham.
The South Shore Chamber and its local business councils helped turn back local option meals taxes in Braintree and Abington recently. Plymouth's town meeting voted to adopt the tax, but the townspeople voted overwhelmingly - 4-1 - to reject it.
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