Airbnb bud
Dem got $, pushes friendly bill
ALBANY — A social media spat and an Airbnb-friendly bill being considered in the state Capitol brought renewed attention Thursday to the big bucks the home-sharing site dropped on an upstate Senate race.
Critics from across the political spectrum are raising questions about the nearly $500,000 the company’s campaign arm, Stronger Neighbors PAC, spent in support of state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange County) last year. Skoufis is the sponsor of a piece of legislation that would legalize and regulate home-sharing in the city and across the state.
“This is a bad bill that puts tenants in harm’s way while paving the way for the loss of affordable housing,” Mike McKee, the treasurer of the progressive advocacy group Tenants PAC, said in a statement. “No amount of campaign spending should be worth selling out housing protections or going back on your own word to clean up Albany’s pay-toplay culture.”
Records show that last year Airbnb spent more than twice as much on Skoufis than all the other candidates it backed combined. The company’s PAC dropped $498,273 on TV, radio, digital and print ads in support of Skoufis. The group spent a total of $224,000 on four other candidates.
Skoufis is also taking heat for the bill after a testy Twitter exchange Wednesday with the politically powerful Hotel Trade Council in which the lawmaker slammed the “unprofessional thugs” at the union.
The 31-year-old tweeted a screenshot of a text conversation in which he canceled a meeting with the Trade Council’s political director, Jason Ortiz, after the group shared a post criticizing Skoufis and referencing Airbnb’s spending on his successful bid to replace retired Sen. Bill Larkin.
“It’s deeply disappointing in a time when unions are under attack across the country that anyone in labor-friendly New York would use the word ‘thuggery’ in describing a union that is made up so heavily of workers who are women and people of color,” Ortiz said in a statement. “It’s OK to disagree, but we must do better than throwing around hateful words like thuggery.”
Skoufis’ bill, which has the backing of the San Franciscobased Airbnb, would ban shortterm rentals in affordable housing or rent-stabilized units and limit city residents to listing a single property on home-sharing sites. It would also require home-sharing sites to register the names of hosts with the state and collect occupancy taxes on behalf of the city and state.
Current rules impose hefty fines on homeowners who rent out their entire home for fewer than 30 days, and critics contend the proposed rules don’t provide enough oversight of the home-sharing industry.
In an unlikely alliance, Republicans joined progressives in piling on the Hudson Valley elected official.
“After accepting a half-amillion in donations from Airbnb interests, Sen. Skoufis changed his position on homesharing,” Senate Republican Leader John Flanagan said in a statement. “There is no bathroom stall where he could hide from this long enough, and no tweet that he could use to shade the truth. This pay-toplay behavior from the Senate’s Investigations Committee chair likely warrants its own investigation.”
Flanagan’s bathroom line refers to Skoufis skipping out on a vote last week on Gov. Cuomo’s pay raise. At first he said he missed the vote because he was in the restroom, but later told reporters he left the chamber in protest.
Republicans and others are also accusing Skoufis of flipflopping, noting that he supported a 2016 Assembly bill that would have barred Airbnb from advertising in the Empire State.
A spokeswoman dismissed the criticisms, saying the senator’s past actions dispel any notion that Skoufis made his decision to back the Airbnb bill based on the company’s financial boost.
“Anyone accusing him of sponsoring a bill because of campaign support does not know him and has not bothered to look at his record as a legislator,” Skoufis’ communications director Jess Gulotta said. “He supported the bill before that PAC even gave him money. This is a matter of policy, and the opposition is using personal slander to get their way.”
Skoufis, a member of the Assembly at the time, was a cosponsor of the same bill put forth by Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn) last year. Gulotta noted that the 2016 bill only dealt with advertising, not home-sharing itself.
She added that the lawmaker’s race was critical to Democrats taking control of the Senate, prompting a lot of outside interest and money to pour in. Skoufis is also open to amending the current bill if critics want to talk policy, she said.
Sen. Kevin Thomas (D-Nassau) came to his fellow Dem’s defense Thursday.
“Just an FYI, if you sling personal attacks at my colleagues then don’t expect a meeting from any of us,” he tweeted.