Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Heads on beds puts dollars in city and town treasuries

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

via Commonwealth Conversations: Revenue by Robert Bliss on 12/19/11

City and Town, the twice-monthly publication of the Division of Local Services, has just published its first in-depth review of the local option room occupancy tax since it was raised from 4 percent to 6 percent in the summer of 2009.

The article comes with a link that shows the amount of local revenue generated from this tax in each of the 177 cities and towns (50 percent of those in the Commonwealth) that has adopted the optional room occupancy tax, and the additional amounts raised by the 93 cities and towns that have elected to tax at a rate higher than 4 percent.

The local option tax generated a record $130.4 million in FY11 for cities and towns, and does not appear to have weakened demand for rental rooms in the Commonwealth, given the data presented in the article.

The article notes that 124 of the Commonwealth's 352 cities and towns, or 35 percent, either have no rental rooms or fewer than three businesses generating room rental income.

That leaves about 15 percent of the state's cities and towns that have foregone the opportunity to generate tax revenue from the local option room occupancy tax.

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