State OKs Hotel Tax for Rye Brook; Trustees Move on Local Legislation

Hotel rooms in Rye Brook may get a little more expensive, now that Gov. David Paterson has signed a home-rule bill allowing the village to impose a room occupancy tax.

Local officials have been working for years with Assemblyman George Latimer (D-Rye) and State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck) on the precedent-setting legislation that made Rye Brook the first village allowed to impose a hotel tax in New York state.

"Sometimes the system works, and this was one of those times," Latimer said at the Board of Trustees meeting Aug. 17.

The New York State Assembly and Senate voted in favor of the bill in June. The Governor signed the law Aug. 14.

At Tuesday's village board meeting, Feinstein asked legislation to be drafted at the maximum 3 percent tax and introduced at the next meeting Sept. 14. If the trustees pass a resolution in favor, a public hearing could be held on the tax as early as Sept. 28.

Feinstein said she was very sensitive to the two hotels in the area, which she called terrific corporate neighbors, and said she looks forward to discussing the possible tax with the public.

The privilege had been reserved for cities and counties. Rye City received the go-ahead in 2006. In 2009, the state gave New Rochelle approval to levy the tax. White Plains also has the same privilege.

Rye Brook has two hotels—the Rye Town Hilton and Doral Arrowwood—which have more than 800 rooms combined. The up-to-3-percent occupancy tax would be added to guests' bills when they check out.

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

As the push for the legislation got underway, Mayor Joan Feinstein had said 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.

The added revenue could 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 in January. "We'd love to generate additional income to be able to pay for some of those additional services, [like] police and fire."