The state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a bill allowing counties to impose a 1 percent sales tax on hotel stays.
TRENTON -- A bill that would allow counties to impose a 1 percent sales tax on hotel stays is moving in the state Legislature.
The bill (S3169), approved Thursday by the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, is part of a package of legislation sponsored by Republicans and Democrats and focused on county government. It narrowly cleared the committee, 7-6.
Revenue from the 1 percent tax would support property tax relief. Hotel guests already pay a state hotel occupancy fee, sales tax and sometimes a municipal hotel tax.
Vicki Clark, vice president of the state Tourism Industry Association, said hoteliers are already overburdened collecting state and municipal taxes.
And while business travelers may not notice the extra expense, New Jersey residents will, state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) said.
MORE: N.J. lawmakers say hotel tax hike, new county spending caps would ease prop taxes
"It does represent a lot when it's a family and they're going on vacation and they want to spend time at the shore," he said, adding it just might encourage them to vacation out of state instead.
Five of the six bills in the package cleared the budget committee. A sixth bill (S2200) that would allow special "class two" law enforcement officers, who receive less training and aren't eligible for certain benefits, to help with court security, was opposed by the state Policemen's Benevolent Association and was held.
Other bills would allow counties to raise court fees to pay for court security (S663) and limit autonomous county offices to the state's 2 percent cap on local government budget increases (S3170).
When the bills were announced in September, Middlesex County Sheriff Mildred Scott said she wasn't sure how the county would afford to put an officer in every courtroom, as ordered by the courts. The $5 fee on every civil and criminal court case would defray those costs, she said.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
