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Tourism leaders back short-term-rental bed tax; public hearing closed, law introduced and set for further action
Summary
At a public hearing on a proposed local law to impose a tax on short-term rentals and hotel occupancy, a tourism industry representative urged the county to capture short-term-rental tax revenue and use destination-data sources. The legislature closed the hearing and later introduced language changes; the measure was set for further consideration.
The Cayuga County Legislature opened a public hearing on a proposed local law imposing an occupancy tax on short-term rentals and hotel rooms. Tourism leaders and residents took the microphone during the hearing.
Erin Castor, who identified herself as managing director of Rob Peter Company and chair of a local tourism board, thanked legislators for preserving the review schedule and urged passage of a local law to ensure short-term-rental (STR) taxes and transient occupancy taxes are collected and remitted to the county. Castor described the data tools the tourism office uses to estimate visitor spending and movement, including Zartico (geolocation and card-spend data) and Tourism Economics, and said those tools define a visitor as someone who travels more than 50 miles or stays overnight. "I urge this body to support any measures that ensure we are capturing the data from visitors coming to this area, including all short term rentals," Castor said in her remarks.
The public hearing was closed by the chair later in the meeting. The legislature introduced a resolution to amend the local law's language for STRs (the bed-tax ordinance language) and discussed procedural steps. After debate on related agenda items and committee reports, the measure was left for further consideration and scheduling; the transcript shows the public hearing itself was closed and the local-law language was before the body, with additional work and a later vote expected.
Why it matters: short-term-rental tax collection affects tourism revenue shared with municipalities and supports county tourism promotion and services. Tourism officials said capturing STR revenue will allow the county and municipalities to better target marketing and services based on visitor-origin and spend data.
Status: public hearing held and closed; language changes were introduced and the matter was placed on the legislature's docket for further action.
