The City Council Tuesday night approved an order from Mayor Richard Kos to increase the local room occupancy excise tax from 4% to 5%.

Local room occupancy excise is a tax placed upon the transfer of occupancy of any room or rooms in a bed and breakfast establishment, hotel, lodging house or motel located within such city or town by any operator at a rate up to, but not exceeding, 6 per cent of the total amount of rent for each such occupancy as defined by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 64G, Section 3A. This tax is collected by State Commissioner of the Department of Revenue and is quarterly redistributed to the city or town in which it was collected and deposited into their general fund. The City of Chicopee received $406,489 in FY 2016 and $461,494 in FY 2017.

“This is a way to secure additional revenue for the City to benefit our roads, parks, and other amenities while remaining competitive in the surrounding area,” said Mayor Kos.

“The City will use this opportunity to generate revenue while at the same keeping the burden off of our residents and maintaining reasonable and competitive hotel rates,” said City Council President John Vieau

“I thank Mayor Kos and President Vieau for bringing this issue forward,” said Ward 1 Councilor Joel McAuliffe. “With the needs that we have, I believe we are obligated to do anything and everything we can to raise additional revenue while minimizing the impact on our taxpayers. Every little bit helps.”

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