Members also debated funding strategies, including a local option sales tax.

Carrie Jones

Jul 15, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Edward Jones Financial Advisor: Elise N. Frank.

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BAR HARBOR—How to make best use of the time moving forward is a key question for the town’s Sustainable Tourism Task Force.

“We’re looking at a tight timeline for delivering the strategy,” consultant Ben Nussbaumer told task force members, July 8.

The town created a task force meant to work with consultants based in Canada—J.E. Austin Associates. The town council had approved the task force and its 13 members during its January 21 meeting.

“There’s a lot riding on it, but there’s also a lot of hope in this space,” former Town Council Chair Valerie Peacock said of the task force, which looks at sustainable tourism management in a town where tourists visit because of Acadia National Park. The park has been attracting 4 million visits (as opposed to individual visitors) each year.

However, the task force can not make policies for or control tourism in the federal park. The park exists in multiple towns on Mount Desert Island as well as the Schoodic Peninsula.

Next steps aren’t just words on the page, Nussbaumer said, but strategic actions.

The group itself is meant to disband once it delivers its report to the Town Council. That’s meant to happen in November 2026.

There are just three scheduled meetings left.

“I’m one of the people who has a great deal of concern about where we are in the process, not that we haven’t accomplished a lot,” Jim Glavine, a task force member, said.

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POTENTIAL FOR AN ADVISORY COUNCIL

Those next steps Nussbaumer mentioned might include recommending starting a tourism advisory body that would potentially run under the Bar Harbor government. That would likely look like the current task force. It would advise the Town Council, which would then create tourism policy that would arise from strategies created by the task force.

A short-term board, the consultants said, could create a framework for an organization for destination stewardship.

That organization, Nussbaumer suggested, could be a non-profit that is not part of the town.

That sort of agency could update the town’s tourism plan, advise the town about policy, and also collect data. If any tourism funding was created, the consultants suggested, that new nonprofit agency would collect and distribute it.

Task Force members seemed against the possibility of any organization other than the town distributing or collecting any tourism-created revenue meant to help the town.

David Woodside, a task force member, said, “If something evolves into receiving moneys, allocating moneys, that’s a whole other realm that, governmentally, I don’t think it would fly anyway. I think it would have to be that the council kind of controls the dollars along with the town manager and so forth. I think it would be a mistake to try to grab on to that, and I think it would all run more smoothly if it were done under those auspices.”

The town already does not get to allocate the sales tax revenue raised by tourism and hospitality industries. That goes directly to the State of Maine with no special relief for towns such as Bar Harbor that bear the burden of supporting visitors.

Task force member Michael Boland said he believes the town should be strongly involved in advocacy for things such as a local option sales tax. It was mentioned during the meeting that the Town Council should hire a lobbyist. He also suggested that they look at how the other towns on the island work together.

“It has to remain for the benefit of the whole and not turn toward a single-issue organization,” Bar Harbor Planning Director Michele Gagnon said.

Boland asked about the dispersion of any theoretical funds raised. Would that be done via a separate non-profit agency or through the town?

Nussbaumer said that goal would likely be to empower the organization on its own mandate.

It could be grant-making or not.

It could receive money or not.

It could allocate money or not.

That’s up for the task force and the town council to potentially agree to and create.

“My concern is, like people have pointed out, we’ve done all this work and all of a sudden they’re going to be like, ‘We’re raising $3 million in property tax income, and it doesn’t. We’re raising $4 million a year in parking revenue, and it doesn’t” do those things that help us, Boland said. “So, I think that we as a group really need to say, ‘this much is going to affordable housing, and this is how we’re defining affordable housing.”

The lodging industry, he said, is going to acknowledge how the town markets itself or not.

“I also want to make sure that this money is going to be going towards the concerns that the community has said: transportation, housing, my property taxes, sustainable tourism,” Boland said.

He was concerned about getting people to serve on a potential board.

Being responsive to the community is important, Woodside agreed.

“That’s the whole reason this is here is to try to make it work for everyone,” Woodside said. “That becomes another mandate that can’t be lost if we stop generating dollars.”

“I think we’re already talking about what the short-term advisory council should be thinking about,” Vice Chair Enoch Albert said.

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LOCAL OPTIONS SALES TAX

The consultants presented a paper about the need for a local options sales tax and how to try to make that a reality though it’s been rejected by the Maine State Legislature for well over half a century.

Representative Gary Friedmann (D-Bar Harbor) spoke to his most recent efforts in the legislature to try to get that tax passed.

Task Force members such as Jeremy Dougherty expressed their support for the tax, which Dougherty said he’s been consistently supportive of since he came to the town.

He said that if it does pass, the state has to make sure that it doesn’t creep up and up like it has in Hawaii. He said it might be easier and faster to create a tourism development district, like Portland has, and that Ellsworth is exploring.

“It is another funding mechanism to address the problems we have,” Dougherty said.

“How can we use tourism to benefit local people” was Katherine Zavestoski’s motivation in joining the task force. Lodging targets tourists, but possibly something else that feels tourism targeted—such as rental cars—should be explored.

Pat Buccello said that an across the board sales tax increase on all retail goods could prevent locals from being able to afford to buy locally, which some, she said, have already indicated that they have problems with.

Boland agreed, leaning against food being taxed, citing both restaurants like his, but also the increased cost to someone getting a pizza slice at Circle K.

”I would advocate letting people know what the money goes towards, including letting the tourists know,” Buccello said of any tourism-funded revenue. “We need to be very transparent in what we do.”

As the group spoke about advocating toward the local options sale tax, Chair Vicki Hall spoke to finding action steps and points to bring to the Bar Harbor Town Council.

“Ideally it would be to put out an RP (request for proposals) for a consultant” to create an advocacy effort, Rep. Friedmann said of pushing the legislature for a local options sales tax. Because of the timeline of the legislature, he said, it would be difficult to get other towns on board quickly enough.

“It would be better for Bar Harbor to spearhead it and eat the initial cost,” Rep. Friedmann said.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Meeting agenda

To watch the meeting

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