GG1fan, you may be new here and missed the point that has been posted innumerable times that if the Eastern Division allowed non TCA members in, every member dealer would have to charge sales tax. The effect would be there would be fewer dealers leading to fewer attendees, not more.
Unless Pennsylvania changes its sale tax rules this meet will never be open to the public.
Pete
Yes, Pete, I am new. I do recall attending York at one time and was charged Pa sales tax because I purchased by credit card rather than cash. Whether charging sales tax on all sales because it is an open event for the public instead of just TCA membership discourages attendance remains to be seen. Sometimes when we have a good thing going for us, we don't want to change it--even if ultimately it may inadvertently cause us harm. So we can avoid sales tax by making it a club activity exclusively, but as time goes on and attendance and membership dwindles, train manufactures and dealers' attendance will also dwindle from lack of interest. So what do you do in that environment? There has to be a re-examination to see what will work in a different set of circumstances. If one has to pay sales tax as a price for making the hobby and the TCA survive, well, maybe that has to be done. We cannot be so self-serving for ourselves that we expect the TCA to survive by keeping things as they are for us when it may not be good for its own survival in the long run.
