Suffolk Closeup West wins again in Suffolk showdown
It was a classic case of western Suffolk County politicians using their political muscle on the East End. The Suffolk Legislature’s move last week quadrupling the county’s hotel/motel tax was typical of the kind of thing seen time and again since a Suffolk County Legislature was formed in 1970.
Before that, the centuries-old Suffolk County Board of Supervisors governed the county. Each of Suffolk’s 10 town supervisors had an equal vote on the board.
Then, after U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s requiring one-person-one-vote as the basis for the make-up of state and then county legislative bodies, the Suffolk Legislature was established with representatives of 18 districts of equal population.
For the East End of Suffolk County, where but 10 percent of the county’s population reside, its insignificant power in the modern Suffolk Legislature became a huge problem.
Moreover, the western Suffolk-dominated legislature often seems blind when the East End is involved. This was again the situation with the hotel/motel tax hike.
The East End is a tourism magnet. It, not Huntington or Babylon or Smithtown, is where people come to vacation, providing a major financial boost for Suffolk County.
But the hotels and motels on the East End are not Hyatts and Sheratons. They are small operations that struggle greatly in the off-season. They will be hurt by what will be a 3 percent hotel/motel tax on top of a sales tax of 8.625 percent.
Suffolk Legislator Jay Schneiderman of Montauk, who represents Southampton and East Hampton Towns and a slice of southeastern Brookhaven Town, tried to explain this to his colleagues last Thursday — and he should know. His parents, when the family lived in Hauppauge, bought a small motel in Montauk.
He spoke of how East End hotels and motels are “mom-and-pop operations — small seasonal motels that after the high cost of operating in our area are lucky to break even.”
“This body,” he warned, “is poised to make the industry less competitive with areas like the Jersey shore where the total sales and hotel tax is less than our current sales tax alone. You may have convinced yourself that this tax won’t deter business but you are wrong. Anything that makes it more expensive to stay in an area will over time drive visitors to other tourist destinations that are more affordable. This proposal to quadruple the hotel tax is an anti-stimulus bill.”
Ken Walles, owner of the Oceanside Beach Resort in Montauk and a board member of the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, stressed that when the tax on a hotel or motel room “breaks that two-digit mark, people start to take notice.”
At 11.625 percent, the increased Suffolk hotel/motel tax would obviously break the two-digit mark for total taxes.
Adding further geographical insult to financial injury, the enabling state legislation providing for the hotel/motel tax jump was “set up,” according to Suffolk Legislator Edward Romaine, to provide that proceeds benefit “only” three institutions where tourists might go and all are in western Suffolk. They are the Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport and Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site in West Hills, both in Huntington Town, and the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville. A large chunk of the tax money raised, meanwhile, would go into the county’s general fund to be used for any purpose.
At least, said Mr. Romaine, the additional money could go to East End tourist attractions such as the Montauk Lighthouse, Suffolk County Historical Society in Riverhead, East End Seaport Maritime Museum in Greenport, Sag Harbor Whaling Museum, Parrish Art Museum in Southampton or Hallockville Museum Farm in Riverhead, among others. Mr. Romaine of Center Moriches represents Shelter Island, Riverhead and Southold Towns and a wide swath of eastern Brookhaven.
Mr. Romaine said the attitude of western Suffolk County legislators towards the East End on the hotel/motel tax increase was: “You’re the goose that lays the golden egg but we’re going to twist your neck even harder.”
“There was just no equity, no fairness!” he protested.
The vote was 13-to-5. In opposition were Messrs. Schneiderman and Romaine, Ricardo Montano of Brentwood, Jack Eddington of Medford and Cameron Alden of Islip.
County Executive Steve Levy intends to sign the measure.