Senate Bill S4986A

                                BILL NUMBER:S4986A

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the tax law, in relation to the
disposition of a portion of sales taxes collected for hotel occupancy
in cities having a population of one million or more

PURPOSE:

To provide each of the five boroughs of New York City with a modest
stream of dedicated funding to promote tourism within each individual
borough.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 provides that either 4 percent of hotel occupancy tax
revenue collected in each of New York City's five boroughs or
$300,000, whichever is less, will be allocated to that borough for the
purpose of promoting tourism.

Section 2 establishes the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

While New York struggles to recover from the recession of 2008, it is
clear that at least one of its major industries is thriving like never
before: New York City Tourism. In 2012, the City welcomed a
              

record-breaking 52 million visitors despite the devastation wrought by
Hurricane Sandy. According to Mayor Bloomberg, these tourists, who
paid for a combined total of 29 million hotel room nights, poured $55
billion into the city's economy. Moreover, the city's hotel occupancy
stands at 87 percent, the highest in the nation. Better yet, there is
good reason to believe that tourism remains a growth industry, with
much of its potential still untapped, particularly outside of
Manhattan. In the past six years, 72 new hotels have been built in
boroughs other than Manhattan and a record-high percentage of
non-Manhattan hotels are under development for the next four years.

With historic and burgeoning neighborhoods like Arthur Avenue and
Woodlawn in the Bronx, St. George and Snug Harbor in Staten Island,
Long Island City, Jackson Heights and Astoria in Queens, and Fort
Greene, Williamsburg and Park Slope in Brooklyn, not to mention dozens
of other great neighborhoods across the city, it is clear that the
potential of the "outer boroughs" is near limitless. That is without
even considering up-and-coming neighborhoods in Manhattan like
Alphabet City and Harlem.

Mayor Bloomberg and NYC & Company deserve enormous credit for
nurturing the tourism boom, and they are doing excellent work
promoting tourism beyond Manhattan with initiatives like "Neighborhood
X Neighborhood," which is "designed to support local businesses and
encourage tourism in neighborhoods outside traditional tourist
locations." However, it is no slight to the job they have done to say
that no one knows the Bronx like people from the Bronx, or that no one
knows Queens like the people of Queens, right on down the line. NYC &
Company will continue to highlight big ticket items like Yankee
Stadium, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Flushing Meadows Corona Park while
increasing emphasis on non-traditional attractions, but to truly


highlight the hidden gems of the five boroughs it makes sense to turn
at least a small portion of the promotional responsibilities to
entities that know their home boroughs better than anyone else.

This legislation will help foster the growth and expansion of New York
City's tourism industry by turning over a small portion of each
borough's hotel occupancy tax revenue (the lesser of 4% or $300,000)
to interborough entities designated by local law and approved by the
Economic Development Corporation for the promotion of local
restaurants, sights, and attractions. By reallocating resources for
this purpose, we can help foster our tourism boom in a long-term and
sustainable fashion.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

No revenue will be lost, but a maximum of $1.5 million in tax revenue
will be reallocated annually for the purpose of promoting tourism in
the five boroughs of New York City. This borough-specific promotion
should, in turn, increase the economic impact of tourism.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the
date on which is shall have become law.