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Local officials press for statewide short-term-rental registry; hosts warn of added costs
Summary
Mayors, first selectmen and municipal enforcement officers asked the committee for a statewide registry and tools to find STR listings that platforms obscure; hosts and small operators said many rentals are small owner-operators and warned optional local taxes and fees would burden homeowners and farmers using STR income to stay afloat.
Municipal officials from shoreline and inland towns told the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee they support HB5536'0(a proposal to create a statewide short-term rental registry and let municipalities adopt an optional supplemental local tax) because platforms obscure listing locations and towns lack resources to identify and enforce local rules.
"We can't enforce rules on properties we cannot find," said Cindy Sporago of the East Haven advocacy group SAFER Shoreline, and municipal presenters described technical practices that obscure map locations and block automated data collection (SEG 6633-6736). Stonington and Brford officials said local ordinances already exist or were recently adopted but municipal staff lack the technical tools or funding to locate offshore-registered listings and enforce permits (SEG 3232-3272, SEG 3244-3269).
Hosts, small farmers and platform representatives countered that most listings are single hosts and small businesses, and they warned that registries, fees and optional municipal taxes could disproportionately hurt homeowners who rely on modest STR income. "We don't have corporate market budgets. We are at the mercy of algorithms," said a Mystic-area host who operates an agritourism property, noting hosts already pay occupancy and sales taxes (SEG 5208-5236).
Several municipal witnesses urged a middle path: a statewide registry to provide authoritative address and operator data to towns, combined with a revenue-sharing model (some suggested allocation of a portion of existing state occupancy tax) rather than creating ad-hoc local taxes that vary municipality-to-municipality.
What happens next: Committee staff will consider enforcement and privacy trade-offs in drafting language. Municipal officials requested state-managed registration and data access for enforcement only; platform and host groups requested privacy protections and equitable treatment of small hosts.
