ALBANY (TNS) — As short-term rentals like Airbnb have proliferated in high-tourism areas, some localities have sought to regulate their impact on housing prices and capture their tax revenue potential. But many have faced problems, namely a lack of resources to enforce the regulations and the pushback from residents and homeowner groups who have largely benefited.
The inconsistent local efforts have created a patchwork of regulations with different rules (or none) depending on the locality in New York State, confusing vacation owners and renters.
A new bill aims to create a state-level lens on this booming sector of the hospitality industry. The Short-Term Rental Registry Act, introduced Friday by Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties, is intended to help municipalities track, regulate and collect taxes on vacation rentals.
“Instead of leaving it up to each community and small town to figure this out on their own, there just isn’t the time, expertise and availability to do it,” Hinchey said. “So now is the time for the state to step in.”
The legislation is the first attempt to develop statewide guidelines on short-term rentals, which it defines as any rental unit “offered for tourist or transient use” for less than 30 consecutive days. . Its main outcome would be to create a statewide registry, operated by the Department of State, in which landowners would be required to register their units every two years. Failure to do so could result in a fine of $200 per day.
Landlords in municipalities that already have vacation rental records do not have to file separately with the state, although the bill would require those municipalities to provide registration information to the State Department so that it can maintain a complete database. This registry data will be shared with booking platforms, such as Airbnb and VRBO, so they can verify that properties listed on their platforms are properly registered.
The data will also feed into a monthly report provided to municipalities with the number of rentals, their location and the number of nights they were occupied. The monthly report, Hinchey said, would allow municipalities to make informed decisions on whether and how to further regulate vacation rentals at the local level, such as setting caps or banning unoccupied rentals. owner, which the bill does not address.
“To the extent that we can step in from the state and provide information, that then allows municipalities to make decisions for what’s best for them,” Hinchey said.
The bill would amend the tax code to define short-term rentals as hotels for tax purposes, and add provisions allowing the state and municipalities to collect sales and occupancy taxes for hotel rentals. short term.
Hinchey stressed that his bill is “in no way a negative reflection on short-term rentals or the businesses and people who operate them”, adding that “they are an important part of our economy, especially during the pandemic, when they were huge”. motors to keep our main streets alive and provide local people with additional income. »
The Hinchey Senate District, the 41st, includes large swathes of the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills, an area that ranked among the top 10 most profitable areas for new Airbnb hosts in 2021, according to a company report. Independent analysis of the short-term rental market found spending on Airbnbs and VRBO in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley jumped 99% from 2020 to 2021.
“We know that hosting on Airbnb is an important source of additional income for many families in the Hudson Valley and Capital Region to support themselves and build economic independence,” said the Airbnb spokesperson Haven Thorn in a statement. “We have worked closely with dozens of communities across the state, and as people continue to deal with the rising cost of living, we are committed to promoting responsible lodging that helps the economy. local.”
For the Many, a group of progressive activists who launched a campaign last summer to get towns in the Hudson Valley to adopt model short-term rental laws, expressed support for the law on the short-term rental registry while also calling on the state legislature to pass “good cause eviction.”
”Sen. Hinchey’s bill takes an important step in the right direction,” Brahvan Ranga, the organization’s political director, said in a statement. “We hope that this legislation, once passed, will help municipalities to adopt stricter regulations, such as banning short-term rentals when the host does not live there, in order to free up our housing stock for long-term residents.
The bill — which has only one co-sponsor so far, State Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan — comes just days before Governor Kathy Hochul is set to outline a housing policy vision. in Tuesday’s State of the State address. Hinchey said his staff had conversations with the governor’s office over the past year about the importance of regulating short-term rentals, but were unsure whether his bill would be included in the outline of the governor’s policy.
“I’m excited to hear what the Governor is presenting in the State of the State for housing because this is one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest issue in the State right now,” Hinchey said. “Hopefully that’s included.”
©2023 Times Union (Albany, NY)
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