Motor-inn taxes
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User fees maybe a fancy name for taxes but it seems increasingly likely they will be a new reason for Dutchess County residents and visitors to reach for their wallets.
Leaders in the Dutchess County Legislature are endorsing County Executive William Steinhaus”™ plan to impose a “highway improvement fee” on the county”™s vehicle owners and to extend and increase the so-called bed tax, the hotel-motel tax levied against overnight visitors to Dutchess County.
Fred Knapp, assistant to Legislature Chairman Roger Higgins, D-New Hamburg, said the two revenue streams combined could bring more than $2 million into the county annually. Both measures have the support of legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Steinhaus included in his proposed $395.7 million spending plan for 2009 roughly $1.1 million in revenues from the implementation of the highway improvement fee.
Under the proposed law, a $5-per-year fee would be levied against passenger vehicles registered to Dutchess County residents and commonly used for noncommercial purposes and weighing less than 3,500 pounds.
A $10 fee would be levied annually against those vehicles weighing more than 3,500 pounds as well as against trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles used principally in connection with businesses carried on within the county except those used in connection with farm operations.
While still under discussion, under a separate plan, Democratic legislators have tentatively proposed an increase in the hotel-motel tax by 3 percentage points, to 7 percent from the current 4 percent bed tax.
The special tax is in addition to the 4 percent state sales tax and the 3.75 percent county sales tax also levied against all hotel rooms in the county.
Majority Leader Sandra Goldberg and Minority Leader Gary Cooper said they still had to discuss the plan with their respective caucuses. But they each said increasing the bed tax is a way to generate needed revenue without increasing the burden to county taxpayers.
Representatives of the hotel-motel industry and especially smaller venues like operators of bed and breakfasts say the idea is ultimately counterproductive, because it will drive tourists away from the county. But legislators are desperate for revenue and are loath to increase the county property tax burden on residents. Â
“It”™s kind of a way of getting a little bit of money from people who come to visit the region,” said Cooper, R-Pine Plains.
Legislators say they need money to continue the county Sheriff”™s Department road patrols, pay for elections within the county and raise funds to meet contractually obligated raises for union contracts. “We”™ve got to come up with a lot of money,” said Cooper, saying those changes alone need about $9 million.
Steinhaus, a Republican, declined to include county funding for those three items in his proposed budget, saying the towns should pay for the Dutchess County Sheriff”™s road patrols and the administration of elections and that county employees should forego their contractually agreed upon pay raises in an effort to help the county weather the current economic climate. But legislative Democrats say that foregoing the raises would generate legal action that would cost the county additional funds and which the county would lose in any case.Â
The Legislature hopes to vote on the 2009 county budget on December 8.