Legislature OKs occupancy tax deal with Airbnb

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County lawmakers have approved a contract with Airbnb to allow the online hosting platform to collect the 2 percent occupancy tax levied against short-term rentals.

The 13-9 vote came despite the concern of some Republican lawmakers who said the agreement will hamper the ability of county and local officials to track and inspect properties being used as short-term rentals.

Minority Leader Ken Ronk attempted to have

the measure sent back to committee for further discussion, but his efforts were rebuffed by Democrats who said the issue had been sufficiently vetted by both County Executive Pat Ryan and the county Legislature.

Chief among his concerns, Ronk said, is that under t he agreement

the county could be precluded from continuing to use a third party vendor to scour internet sites and report back to the county properties being advertised on the internet for short-term lodging. That information is used by the county to collect the occupancy taxes owned and is given to the municipalities for code enforcement and other purposes.

“I think our ability to do code enforcement and help

out these towns is much more valuable than any little amount of money we’ll get,” said Ronk, R-Wallkill.

L e g i s l a t or T homas Corcoran, a code enforcement officer in the town of Marlborough, agreed, saying the agreement will make code enforcement efforts more difficult because towns won’t be told what properties are being used as short-term rentals.

Ronk said he is also concerned that the agreement

allows Airbnb to simply pay the county an aggregate amount without providing details about the host properties paying the money.

Supporters of the agreement said it will “level the playing field” by making short-term rentals pay the same tax now being paid by traditional hotels and motels.

Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher earlier this year said only

about 75 percent of the short-term rentals in the county are paying the tax and recommended t he county enter into voluntary agreements with online hosting platforms to ensure the tax is being collected.

Former Comptroller Ell iott Auerbach made a similar recommendation in 2016, but the proposal was panned by former County Executive Michael Hein and most county leg

islators who questioned a number of aspects of the plan, including the legality of the agreements and whether the county could audit the online platform to be certain it is remitting all taxes collected to the county.

Currently, more than 20 counties in the state, including Dutchess and Orange counties, have voluntary agreements with Airbnb to collect the county’s tax.