Town push for increased occupancy tax hits a potential snag

Last week, the town board was discussing the next move to adopt up to a 3 percent additional occupancy tax on people staying at local hotels/motels, which is the preferred method among elected officials and other town leaders to pay for rising costs for special events.

The town says it is incurring greater costs than before with the sheer volume of events on public property (i.e. on town streets, parking lots, parks, etc.), and they are looking for a way to minimally impact event organizers, who have said the are operating on the razor's edge in terms of financing their events.

Town Manager Eric Peterson said the town’s plan to fund public services at events has run into a legal precedent. Similar bills establishing occupancy taxes for tourism purposes have been dedicated to fund tourism initiatives, he said, but he sees little evidence a tax would be approved to compensate for town services.

“We don’t think we can use this money to reimburse expenses,” he said.

Based on bills passed recently in other communities for a similar tax creation, the town would have to create another tourism advisory board, with roughly two-thirds of money raised through the tax benefiting tourism campaigns. One-third of the proceeds, Peterson said, could be used toward “tourism expenses.”

This would mean the town could use the money to offset other tourism-related costs, like its wayfinding signage plan, but using proceeds for event management costs “would be a stretch,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t ask for something special,” he said.

Peterson said town staff will bring back more information on what the town can request authority for in a General Assembly bill. They aren't tied to the bill language used by other towns, he said, but the town might have to make a compelling argument to use the tax income for so general a purpose. The bill was likely written to avoid potential abuses of the income, he said.

That will be something to watch. As for things coming up over the next issue or two (and around the holidays, we plan for two papers at a time and see what surfaces each week):

• I attended a rail station task force meeting this week, and the plans for the Collins property - which would include a train station, HYAA fields and perhaps a performing arts center - were much further along than I realized. More details next week.

• I'll finally have excerpts from my talk with Mayor Tom Stevens on what the next few years have in store for Hillsborough.

• I'm told there will be an update on the Colonial Inn repairs.

• Also, very likely we'll have Brady Road news/analysis.

• I have a feature or two in the pipeline for either this week or next.

As always, tips, story ideas and feedback are welcome at josh.kastrinsky(at)newsoforange.com or editorial(at)newsoforange.com (both go to me).