Authorizes the town of Minisink to impose a hotel and motel tax at a rate of five percent.
This bill authorizes the Town of Minisink in Orange County to adopt local laws imposing a hotel and motel occupancy tax of up to 5 percent on the per-diem rental rate for rooms in hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts, and similar transient lodging facilities. The tax would not apply to permanent residents, defined as people occupying a room for at least 90 consecutive days. The bill also sets out administrative rules for collection, payment, returns, refunds, judicial review, and limitations periods, and it directs that revenue be deposited into the town’s general fund.
The authorization is temporary: each local law enacted under the bill may run for no more than three years, and the state authorization itself expires and is repealed three years after the act takes effect. The measure is structured as a home-rule style revenue tool, giving the town authority to raise funds for municipal purposes while preserving exemptions for certain governmental and charitable entities and limiting the tax to transient lodging transactions.
The bill amends the New York Tax Law by adding a new section authorizing only the Town of Minisink to impose a local hotel and motel occupancy tax. It expands the town’s taxing authority, establishes the maximum rate, defines covered lodging, and sets procedural rules for administration, collection, challenges, and refunds. If enacted, it would affect hotel, motel, bed-and-breakfast, and tourist lodging operators in Minisink, as well as transient guests who pay the tax, while excluding permanent residents and certain exempt entities. Revenue would flow to the town’s general fund for municipal services, infrastructure, and other local expenditures.
The available context suggests generally favorable sentiment. The bill was reported favorably from committee and advanced through the Senate process, indicating support for giving Minisink a local revenue option. The bill text itself frames the tax as a limited, temporary authorization, which may have helped make it more acceptable as a targeted local measure rather than a broad statewide tax change.
No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so specific objections are not documented in the available materials. Based on the bill’s design, likely points of discussion would include the burden on lodging businesses and transient visitors, the appropriateness of a new local tax, and whether the town should receive this revenue authority. The bill addresses some potential concerns by capping the rate at 5 percent, exempting permanent residents, limiting the authorization to three years, and restricting the tax to a single municipality.