Relates to the hotel or motel tax in county of Oswego

BILL NUMBER:S5786

Title of bill

An act to amend the tax law, in relation to hotel or motel tax in the county of Oswego

Purpose

To authorize the Oswego County legislature to impose an additional one percent tax on the per diem rental rate of hotel or motel rooms.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends § 1202-h of the tax law to authorize Oswego County to impose a four percent tax on the per diem rental rate of hotel or motel rooms.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

Existing law

§ 1202-h of the tax law authorizes Oswego County to impose a county tax upon persons occupying tourist home, inn, hotel, or motel rooms in Oswego County. The rates of such tax shall be three percent of the per diem rental rate for each room provided, however, such tax shall not be applicable to a permanent resident of such tourist home, inn, hotel or motel or to rooms in such lodging facilities having less than six rentable units.

Justification

Oswego County has experienced a blossoming in recent years and now offering residents and tourists to the areas an extensive variety of goods and services. This has resulted in more tourists traveling to and lodging in Oswego County. During this bourgeoning, however, Oswego's bed tax has remained 3%, while counties that neighbor and compete with Oswego have raised their bed tax to 6% in recent years.

Oswego County's economy relies on it remaining competitive with neighboring counties. Fortunately, the county is in a great position to raise their bed tax. Incrementally increasing the tax from three to four percent would generally go unnoticed to tourists, while significantly benefiting the county. Neither the so-called "weekend warriors," nor couples using Oswego as a wedding destination, will notice the increase as the increase is so minor to the consumer thus not significant enough to serve as a deterrent.

The 1% jump is estimated to increase revenue by $110,000 annually for the county. Oswego County plans to reinvest this increase in revenue into tourism through promotional initiatives. This reinvestment is important because as the tourism market continues to evolve, vibrant and effective commercial and social media campaigns become more necessary and more expensive. These types of marketing initiatives are currently too expensive for the county and competitive branding requires aggressive high quality marketing. Furthermore, Oswego must

compete with the entities like the nearby casinos that have many more resources to devote solely to marketing.

This marginal increase would have little effect on the visitors to Oswego County, while providing a significant increase to the county's tourism budget. Only through investment and reinvestment in Oswego's tourism industry will the county continue to grow, prosper, and attract new tourists to the region. As such, the enactment of this bed tax increase is imperative.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None to the state.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.