DOVER, Del. (AP) - A Senate committee is set to discuss a bill filed by a Delaware lawmaker to repeal a lodging tax authorization measure that he sponsored last year.
The bill to be considered Wednesday repeals the authority granted by state lawmakers to allow Kent County elected officials to impose a lodging tax of up to 3 percent.
All the revenue generated by the tax, which was never implemented by local officials…would have gone to the Kent County Regional Sports Complex Corporation, also known as DE Turf.
The lodging tax bill prompted concerns about a possible conflict of interest because attorney John Paradee brother of bill sponsor Trey Paradee, a Dover-area Democratic senator was a member of nonprofit's board when the bill passed.
Trey Paradee has said he had no idea his brother was on the DE Turf board until after the bill was passed, even though John Paradee's involvement in the sports complex had been the subject of news reports dating back to 2014.
Just days after his brother's bill passed, John Paradee, a land use attorney, filed an application with state planners for a commercial project including a hotel, restaurant and retail space on land adjacent to the sports complex. He has since resigned from the DE Turf board.
