Rye Brook Wants Hotel Tax

Rye Brook and other villages and towns throughout Westchester are pushing to generate extra revenue by taxing local hotels, a privilege currently reserved for cities and counties.

The Rye Brook Village Board passed a resolution Tuesday to support efforts to change the New York state law that currently prohibits towns and villages from levying a hotel occupancy tax.

Assemblyman George Latimer, who sponsored a bill in 2006 that allowed the city of Rye to levy the tax, is pushing for Rye Brook to get the same benefit.

Other Westchester municipalities are generating revenue from a hotel tax. In 2009, the state gave New Rochelle approval to levy the tax. White Plains also has the same privilege.

For the last three years, Rye Brook has tried to get the state to change its law. If amended, the law would allow Rye Brook and other villages and towns to levy up to a three percent occupancy tax on hotels, which would be added to guests' bill when they check out.

"Hotel taxes are considered good taxes from a local standpoint because it's visitors to the community that are paying it rather than people that are living in the community," Latimer told Patch in an interview this week. "Paying a three percent hotel tax is not going to be that big of a burden for a person visiting the community."

As many municipalities face revenue shortfalls, they are looking elsewhere for other sources of income.

Rye Brook currently has two hotels—the Rye Town Hilton and Doral Arrowwood—which have more than 800 rooms combined.

With prices ranging from $95 to $219 a night at the Hilton and about $189 a night at Doral Arrowwood, Rye Brook could generate some much-needed revenue.

According to Mayor Joan Feinstein, a hotel occupancy tax could result in an estimated six figures a year for the village, which is currently dealing with declining revenue from mortgage taxes, sales taxes and interest, Feinstein said.

"We are always looking for non-property revenue to be able to generate revenue other than from property taxes, and a hotel tax in Rye Brook would be a wonderful thing because we have over 800 rooms for hire in Rye Brook," Feinstein said.

Feinstein said the added revenue would help the village offset some of the expenses associated with having hotels in the community.

"We certainly have a large number of rooms and obviously there are services associated with it," she said. "We'd love to generate additional income to be able to pay for some of those additional services, [like] police and fire."

One downfall of the tax levy is that it could cause guests to go to hotels in neighboring areas where rates are cheaper, especially if they are planning to stay in a hotel for an extended period.

Latimer said that though the tax would benefit Rye Brook residents, getting the state to change the law will not be easy.

"My argument is going to be that the rising property tax burden is great on the people who live in the community," Latimer said. "It would be a significant revenue stream for the village of Rye Brook. I support them getting that levy, but it's going to be a tough slay up here."