Two of Otsego County’s three baseball camps are not paying the 2 percent occupancy tax to the county. Despite a pending court decision on the legality of the tax, we think the camps ought to be paying up.

More than a year ago, the county board amended the local law and extended the occupancy tax to youth baseball camps. The law took effect Jan. 1, but, so far, only one of three large camps in the county, Cooperstown All Star Village, is paying, according to county Treasurer Myrna Thayne.

She said she sent letters last year to all three camps, informing them that they should register to collect the bed tax.

She said she did not hear back from Cooperstown Baseball World, in the city of Oneonta. Cooperstown Dreams Park, in the town of Hartwick, filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court last fall, denying that the county has the right to impose the tax.

We can understand, perhaps, that the Dreams Park would not want to pay until its lawsuit is resolved. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be better to go ahead and pay the county bed tax, and worry about court decisions and refunds later?

We figure the county is due about $100,000 a year in bed tax just from the Dreams Park alone. Park officials should have begun collecting the 2 percent from occupants this year and they insist on not paying the county, it should be put into escrow.

The Baseball World, however, has no excuse and should be charging its occupants the tax and turning revenues over to the county. What are officials there doing, hoping the court sides with the Dreams Park and throws out the tax?

We think the lawsuit will lose, anyway, because there’s no reason charging an all-inclusive fee for activities as well as sleeping accommodations warrants an exemption.

At the Dreams Park, according to court papers, each person pays $625 for the weeklong experience and rent. It’s fairly simple to show that about half of the fee is for lodging and the other half for baseball.

But papers filed by the Dreams Park’s attorneys, Gozigian, Washburn & Clinton of Cooperstown, and Dorsey & Whitney of Manhattan, state that the county ``is not authorized under New York law to levy an occupancy tax on entities such as Cooperstown Dreams Park that do not offer rentable units to the public.’’

We don’t think it’s an issue that would make theme camps exempt from the occupancy tax. Whether they’re here for a hotel, B&B or the baseball camp, visitors are using services and imposing demands on our municipalities.

County Board Chairman Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, is right when he says baseball camps shouldn’t be exempt. Dreams Park customers rely on services provided in the county during their stays, and they do not come without a cost.

``If we can get them to pay their fair share, the way other visitors do," he said, "it’s that much less we have to ask the property owners to pay."