Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse Common Council supports Mayor Ben Walsh’s request from the state Legislature to allow a new hotel room occupancy tax in the city.
Councilors voted 8-0 Monday in support of proposed state legislation to establish a 2% lodging tax. Councilor Pat Hogan was absent.
Walsh asked the city’s representatives in Albany for the law, and state Sen. Rachel May and Assemblyman William Magnarelli introduced bills in the Legislature. To be approved by state lawmakers, the council had to give its blessing. If the Legislature passes the bill, Gov. Kathy Hochul would need to sign it into law.
The measure encountered pushback from local tourism officials, who said the timing of such a tax was troubling. Danny Liedka, president of Visit Syracuse, the area’s tourism promotion agency, said the pending loss of two major hotels, the Sheraton Hotel by Syracuse University and the Crowne Plaza on the edge of downtown, will already drive prices higher. That will make it tougher for Syracuse to attract conventions, and adding a new tax to an unstable market could cause additional damage.
Councilor Corey Williams, who chairs the Taxation and Finance Committee, said lawmakers agree with the Walsh administration’s conclusion that the small amount of the lodging tax likely wouldn’t impact business for hotels. For a room priced at $150 per night, a 2% Syracuse tax would add $3.
“We’ve got a $25 million budget deficit,” Williams said. “We need to generate revenue and it’s a way to do that not on the backs of our residents.”
Walsh administration officials estimate the 2% tax would bring about $1.5 million to $1.75 million for the first couple of years of existence, and that figure would grow as more hotels open in the future.
In justifying their request for a tax, Syracuse officials have pointed to the Onondaga County towns of Dewitt and Skaneateles, which both successfully lobbied the state Legislature and the governor last year to get their own lodging taxes established on top of the 7% rate charged by the county. DeWitt’s tax is 2% while Skaneateles has a 5% rate.
Walsh publicly discussed the potential for a city hotel tax last summer as part of bigger effort to address a lingering budget gap between revenues and expenses. The city has drawn on reserve funds and American Rescue Plan Act money to balance its recent budgets.
In other news:
Councilors unanimously overrode a pair of related vetoes that Walsh made on the 2024-25 city budget. The mayor vetoed a council amendment that cut a $200,000 salary study for union employees in the city’s public works and maintenance departments. He also vetoed a council amendment transferring $500,000 into the city’s general reserve fund, taking $200,000 to pay for the salary study and using the other $300,000 to reduce the property tax increase.
Walsh issued a statement after the council’s overrides that said the administration will consult with union leadership on potential options.
““We made a commitment to our employee labor leadership to conduct a compensation study for certain union employees,” Walsh said. “It’s consistent with our goal of ensuring fairness and equity in compensation among all city workers.”
The council cut the union salary study because they did not receive a plan for how the administration would use the results.
The council’s overrides keep the budget it adopted on May 6 intact. The $341 million spending plan includes a 2% property tax rate increase.
City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at [email protected], (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.
This post was originally published on 3rd party site mentioned in the title of this site
