Albany residents urge county to join short-term rental registry, collect bed tax

Several Albany residents urged the Albany County Legislature on Jan. 13 to opt into a newly signed New York state law that creates a registry for short-term rentals, arguing the change would allow the county to collect bed tax and curb neighborhood problems caused by commercial short-term rental operations. Nancy Goody, an Albany resident and landlord, told the chamber the law “is to create a registry of short term rentals and each county gets the opportunity to, buy into this, registration system.”

Why it matters: Speakers said opting in would let Albany County collect bed tax revenue and give local government a tool to track and regulate rentals they say are displacing long-term housing. “It is taking away good healthy housing from residents,” Goody said, and she urged the county to “opt into this and collect that bed tax.”

Several speakers backed Goody’s call. Greg Bell, a longtime property owner on Irving Street who identified himself as a landlord, said short-term rentals had caused persistent neighborhood problems on his street and urged the legislature to sign on to the registry. “I’m here to urge you to do that,” Bell said. He added he compiled “a list of ways by which I believe that short term rentals are either violating laws or somehow just avoiding laws,” and argued many rentals are run by large operators rather than individual hosts.

Owner-occupant Daryl McGrath told the legislature his neighborhood has had repeated problems — including trash, noise, illegal parking and what he described as a potential fire hazard — that he attributes to short-term rental activity. “These are completely unregulated in the city of Albany,” McGrath said, and he urged county action now available under the state law.

Details from speakers: Goody said the new law treats short-term rentals as hotels for tax purposes and told legislators there are “over 421 just Airbnb’s located illegally in the city of Albany,” while Bell said the number had grown from about 380 two years ago. McGrath said corporate purchasers have been acquiring entire buildings and that “as many as 8 or 9 occupants were being crammed into a 1 bedroom apartment” at one property he cited; he offered to share a police report related to an alleged assault at an Airbnb on State Street.

What the speakers asked for: Residents asked the legislature to opt the county into the state registry, to coordinate with the city of Albany, and to use the registry to enforce taxes and neighborhood standards. “We are part of a neighborhood group that has been working for almost 3 years to get the City of Albany to take regulatory action against short term rentals,” McGrath said.

Next steps: The transcript records the speakers’ requests during the public forum; no formal vote on opting into the registry was taken during the Jan. 13 legislative meeting.