{"id":547750,"date":"2010-04-29T23:01:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T03:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.77045"},"modified":"2010-04-29T23:04:46","modified_gmt":"2010-04-30T03:04:46","slug":"hotel-tax-bill-is-approved-by-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/547750","title":{"rendered":"Hotel Tax Bill Is Approved By The House"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The state hotel tax would rise from 12 percent to 15 percent under a bill that passed the state House of Representatives by a 88-50 vote late Thursday and is headed for action in the Senate.<\/p>\n

One-third of the 3 percentage point increase would go to the cities or towns where the hotels that collected the money are located; two-thirds would go to the regional planning organizations on a pro rata basis. <\/p>\n

All hotel tax revenue currently goes into the state’s general fund.<\/p>\n

Regionalization requires coordination and start-up money, and that’s why giving cities and towns a portion of the money collected from the state hotel tax is so important, said Rep. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The state has 15 regional planning organizations, and, hopefully, tourism would is a priority for those organizations, said Sharkey, co-chairman of the legislature’s planning and development committee.<\/p>\n

Based on projections, Connecticut’s finances will not improve any time soon, Sharkey said, and lawmakers need to find ways to help cities and towns diversify their revenue streams regardless of the economy. Municipalities are relying too much on a property tax, he said.<\/p>\n

“The property tax is choking our state,” Sharkey said, adding that regionalization efforts could result in future savings. “We have to do something. We have to act now.”<\/p>\n

Action might be needed, but Rep. T.R. Rowe, R-Trumbull, questioned whether a higher tax was the answer.<\/p>\n

“We always seem to attempt to solve problems by raising revenue,” he said. “It’s how can we squeeze more from the taxpayers or the tourists.”<\/p>\n

Rowe also said he worried that increasing the hotel tax would hurt the state’s competitiveness, particularly in tourism locations.<\/p>\n

Some cities and towns have expressed concerned, but, generally, the tax increase would not hurt the state, Sharkey said, and the extra that money cities and towns would get would more than offset any potential loss.<\/p>\n

The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates that the hotel tax increase would generate $9.4 million in fiscal 2011, which starts July 1, and $18.8 million in fiscal 2012 for cities and towns and regional planning organizations.<\/p>\n

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities has been lobbying hard for cities and towns to receive a portion of the hotel tax. <\/a><\/p>\n

The Connecticut Lodging Association, however, has said they have serious concerns with the bill. It says the lodging industry is being targeted to produce additional revenue even though the state has consistently cut funds for tourism marketing. <\/p>\n

CCM reports that Connecticut is one of only nine states lacking some sort of local hotel tax. Massachusetts has a local tax rate of up to 6 percent, while Rhode Island has a 1 percent local hotel tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state hotel tax would rise from 12 percent to 15 percent under a bill that passed the state House of Representatives by a 88-50 vote late Thursday and is headed for action in the Senate. One-third of the 3 percentage point increase would go to the cities or towns where the hotels that collected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}