NORWICH – An occupancy tax on hotel and bed & breakfast rooms in Chenango County has been researched to death over the past eight years or so, but this time might just be the charm.
An implementation date could be as soon as 2013.
What’s different? All but one of the counties that surrounds Chenango now charge the tax. And in the state, 42 of 62 counties also do.
“One of the reasons we previously decided against it was that people would go to a surrounding county instead. But now, almost everyone has it,” said Ross Iannello, the politically unaffiliated supervisor of New Berlin. Iannello is a longtime member of the Planning & Economic Development Committee.
The average regional bed tax rate is 4 percent; it’s anywhere from 3 to 12 percent across New York. Cortland County charges 5 percent; Madison, 4; Broome, 3; and Otsego, 2 percent. Only Delaware does not have an hotel occupancy tax.
According to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the gross taxable hotel/motel sales in Chenango County from February 2008 to March 2009 was $1.8 million. The number is based on 256 taxable rooms. Commerce Chenango President and CEO Maureen Carpenter told supervisors of the Planning & Economic Development Committee last week that the potential collectable tax at 4 percent would have been $72,880.
Data for last year’s tourism season is not yet available.
Carpenter said the new tax would be on visitors, not residents; would become a revenue source for administering it; and would also return about $50,000 to the general fund that is annually allocated to tourism.
The new tax would become a local law and administered by the treasurer’s office, she said. The board of supervisors could designate receipts for the purposes of enhancing and promoting Chenango County tourism.
Committee Chairman David C. Law, R-Norwich, asked Carpenter to gather more information from the treasurer and report back to the committee in April.
Chenango County Tourism Director Audrey Robinson, in a recent presentation to the committee, said tourism is “big business” in Chenango County. Approximately 135,000 people attended events in 2010. She said total expenditures for 2009 were $26.66 million, including $1.37 million for lodging; $578,000 for recreation; $5.4 million for food and beverage; $2.6 million for retail and service; $1.2 million for transportation; $15.5 million for second homes.
Chenango County had far fewer dollars to direct toward tourism last year. The state run matching funds program was nonexistent. Only $60,000 went toward marketing in 2010 versus $107,500 in 2009.
Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays said the only argument against an occupancy tax would be unless Chenango County “wants to remain an oasis and really say so.”
Bainbridge Supervisor Delores Nabinger said she would be in favor of the tax as long as collections were used to promote tourism and nothing else in the county’s budget.