Harford County's Tourism Nonprofit Ordered to Repay $266,100
Summary
A Maryland circuit court ordered Visit Harford, Inc. -- the private nonprofit a 2015 county executive order put in charge of tourism promotion -- to repay Harford County $266,100.06 after ruling it spent taxpayer money on gift cards, beer, airfare and electronics without justification, and never delivered the website and social media accounts it was contracted to build. The judgment claws back 41.3% of the entire $645,000 contract the county signed with the nonprofit in 2023 -- the same contract dispute that started when the county quietly stopped paying.
A 2015 outsourcing decision, funded by a hotel tax
Harford County stopped running its own tourism-marketing office in December 2015, when the county executive at the time issued an executive order⧉ abolishing the in-house Tourism and Marketing Division and handing the job to Visit Harford, a nonprofit created the year before specifically to promote travel to the county. The arrangement ran on the county's 6% Hotel Occupancy Tax, adopted under Bill 14-035⧉ "for the purpose of expanding tourism and tourism related activities" -- a tax that raised $3,557,609.99 countywide in fiscal year 2023 alone. In June 2023, the county and Visit Harford signed a new contract: $645,000, paid in three $215,000 installments, each conditioned on the nonprofit filing expense reports with its payment request.
View data as table
| Unjustified expenditures | $147,658.01 | Gift cards, beer, airfare, meals, electronic devices |
|---|---|---|
| Undelivered work products | $118,442.05 | Website and social media recreation costs |
| Total judgment | $266,100.06 | Awarded to Harford County, June 17, 2026 |
The third payment never came, and neither did a defense
The first two installments went out without incident. Then, on January 10, 2024, Visit Harford filed its request for the third -- and within days, the county council passed Bill No. 23-034⧉, compelling the county to send Visit Harford a quarter of all hotel-tax revenue regardless of what the contract said. The county executive vetoed the bill within days, asserting "exclusive power" over how hotel-tax revenue is spent; the council overrode the veto two weeks later. None of that resolved the actual payment dispute: the county neither paid the third installment nor explained why, and on April 16, 2024 it terminated the contract outright without ever paying it.
Visit Harford sued that July for the withheld $215,000 plus interference damages tied to a state tourism grant the county redirected to itself. The suit did not survive: on September 9, 2025, the court dismissed Visit Harford's claim⧉ and placed the nonprofit in default on the county's own counterclaim -- the counterclaim that produced this June's $266,100.06 judgment.
View data as table
| FY2023 Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue | $3,557,609.99 |
|---|---|
| 2023 Visit Harford contract | $645,000.00 |
| June 2026 judgment against Visit Harford | $266,100.06 |
Harford County has since brought tourism marketing back in-house as "Hello Harford," the same function Visit Harford was created to hold in 2015. County Executive Bob Cassilly called the judgment "an important victory for Harford County taxpayers," adding that "the court affirmed our view that outside entities receiving public funds must spend those funds for their intended purpose and be able to account for every dollar." Winning the judgment and collecting on it are different things -- the county's own announcement says only that it will "pursue" full collection of the $266,100.06.
- A Harford County circuit court ordered Visit Harford, Inc. to repay $266,100.06 in a June 17, 2026 judgment -- $147,658.01 for unjustified spending on gift cards, beer, airfare, meals and electronics, and $118,442.05 for tourism work, including a website and social media accounts, it never delivered.
- The judgment equals 41.3% of the entire $645,000 contract the county signed with Visit Harford in June 2023 -- the same contract dispute that began when the county withheld the final $215,000 installment without explanation.
- Visit Harford, created in 2014, became the county's tourism-marketing arm under a 2015 executive order that abolished the county's own in-house division; the county has since replaced it with an in-house program, "Hello Harford."
- Visit Harford's own 2024 lawsuit against the county was dismissed in September 2025, leaving it in default on the county's counterclaim -- the claim that produced this judgment nine months later.
The $266,100.06 judgment followed Visit Harford's default on Harford County's counterclaim, not a full adversarial trial contesting the county's specific factual allegations -- Harford County's own announcements state the dismissal and the default but do not explain why Visit Harford did not contest the counterclaim before judgment was entered. The $3,557,609.99 FY2023 Hotel Occupancy Tax figure is drawn from Visit Harford's own complaint rather than an independently published county revenue report; it describes the county's own tax collections and is not disputed anywhere in the litigation record reviewed for this article. Harford County's announcements name the unjustified-expenditure categories -- gift cards, beer, airfare, meals, electronic devices -- but do not break out a dollar figure for each category within the $147,658.01 total.
Sources(4) ▾
- Circuit Court for Harford County, Maryland (filed by Visit Harford! Inc., via Pessin Katz Law, P.A.), Visit Harford! Inc. v. Harford County, Maryland -- Complaint (Circuit Court for Harford County) (2024-07-30) — The complaint Visit Harford! Inc. filed against Harford County, mirrored in full by Maryland Matters (a nonprofit statehouse newsroom that routinely publishes the primary documents behind its reporting), since the county court's own e-filing system does not offer direct public PDF links. Source for the undisputed procedural and background facts pled in the complaint: Visit Harford's founding date and 2015 executive order transferring tourism-marketing duties to it (paras. 8-10); the June 29, 2023 contract's $645,000 value in three $215,000 installments (paras. 11-14); the county's FY2023 Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue of $3,557,609.99 (para. 7); the passage, veto, and veto-override of Bill No. 23-034 (paras. 21-26); and the April 16, 2024 contract termination (para. 32). The complaint's damages claims themselves (Counts I-II) are Visit Harford's own contested legal allegations, not adjudicated fact -- flagged as such in the article text -- and were ultimately dismissed with Visit Harford defaulted on the county's counterclaim (see doc-dismissal-pr). marylandmatters.org · original document
- Harford County, Maryland (Office of the County Executive), Court Awards Harford County $266,100 Judgment Against Visit Harford, Inc. for Contract Breach (2026-06-17) — The county government's own announcement of the June 17, 2026 final judgment. Source for: the $266,100.06 total judgment and its $118,442.05 (undelivered work products) / $147,658.01 (unjustified expenditures) breakdown; Judge W. Michel Pierson as the ruling judge; the specific unjustified-expenditure categories (gift cards, beer, airfare, meals, electronic devices); County Executive Bob Cassilly's quote; and the statement that the county has since stood up 'Hello Harford' as its in-house tourism-promotion successor. harfordcountymd.gov · original document
- Harford County, Maryland (Office of the County Executive), Court Dismisses Visit Harford's Breach of Contract Claim Against Harford County (2025-09-09) — The county's announcement of the September 9, 2025 ruling. Source for: Judge W. Michel Pierson dismissing Visit Harford's breach-of-contract claim and placing Visit Harford in default on the county's counterclaim -- the procedural posture that led directly to the June 2026 damages judgment (doc-judgment-pr). harfordcountymd.gov · original document
- Harford County, Maryland Office of the County Auditor, Audit of Hotel Occupancy Tax -- Super 8 by Wyndham, Aberdeen (Report No. 2023-A-20B) (2023-07-21) — A county-auditor compliance audit of one hotel's Hotel Occupancy Tax remittances, used here only to independently corroborate the tax mechanism itself: that Harford County adopted the 6% Hotel Occupancy Tax via Bill 14-035 'for the purpose of expanding its tourism and tourism related activities' -- the same tax pool from which Visit Harford's contract and the Bill No. 23-034 mandate were funded. harfordcountymd.gov · original document
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A Harford County, Maryland circuit court judge ordered Visit Harford, Inc.⧉ -- the private nonprofit the county put in charge of tourism promotion in 2015 -- to repay the county $266,100.06, Harford County's own June 17, 2026 announcement⧉ of the ruling shows. Judge W. Michel Pierson found the nonprofit had $147,658.01 in unjustified spending -- gift cards, beer, airfare, meals and electronic devices with no shown link to tourism promotion -- and never delivered $118,442.05 worth of contracted work, including the county's own tourism website and social media accounts, forcing the county to rebuild them itself. The judgment claws back 41 cents of every dollar in the $645,000 contract the county signed with Visit Harford in mid-2023.