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Hudson-area hoteliers urge Columbia County to exclude small outside-Hudson hotels from new short-term rental tax
Summary
Hotel owners outside the city of Hudson told supervisors the newly enacted short-term rental/occupancy tax will unfairly hurt small, family-run inns that already remit local fees and undergo inspections; they asked the board to slow implementation or exclude them from the rule.
Jennifer Ozi McDonald, owner of the Gold Dutch Inn, and other local hoteliers told the Columbia County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 11 that a recently enacted change to short-term rental/occupancy tax law should not automatically include small hotels outside the city of Hudson.
McDonald said her hotel and several nearby independent operators already charge an 8% local fee to guests and are regularly inspected. She told the board that applying an additional county change that could raise effective local charges from 8% to 12% (if combined with pending state changes) would hurt small, family-run businesses that rely on modest occupancy rates outside of Hudson.
"By making our tax go from 8% to 12% is making our prices go higher," McDonald said (first at SEG 733). She said many of the small hotels near her sell out only a handful of weekends each year and that absorption of higher taxes would decrease owner income rather than significantly reduce guest demand.
Board members and staff clarified several legal points: county occupancy tax authority differs from a city's occupancy tax and a separate state sales-tax proposal addressing short-term rentals (Airbnb/VRBO) is pending on the governor's desk; if enacted, that proposal could alter total tax incidence for short-term rentals. At least one supervisor asked whether Hudson's existing local 4% occupancy tax would limit the county's ability to add a county occupancy charge in the city.
County staff responded that the county's changes stem from enabling state legislation and local enactment; supervisors said they would consider stakeholder concerns but noted some elements are subject to state law.
Ending: Hoteliers asked the board to slow the rollout or amend the local implementation to exclude small hotels outside Hudson; supervisors expressed willingness to consider input but noted some changes are driven by state action and local enactment already on the books.
Quotes: "We are not Hudson... I could count on 2 hands the number of weekends in a year that my hotel sells out," said Jennifer Ozi McDonald (first at SEG 733).
"If that were to pass, then those Airbnbs and hotels would get 12% or 4% plus," said a board member clarifying the interaction of state and local taxes (first at SEG 871).
