Glen Cove plans for 4% hotel tax, still needs New York State approval

Glen Cove plans to draw on a new revenue stream to help balance its 2027 budget: A 4% hotel and motel tax projected to generate $286,000.

The fee would come in the form of a charge on each night stayed at a hotel in the city. Currently, there is only one hotel that qualifies, city officials say: The Mansion — a 186-room establishment on bucolic property near the waterfront.

The tax includes "any facility providing lodging on an overnight basis," including inns, cottages and clubs, according to the bill.

The revenue, which would account for a small share of the city’s $70.7 million spending plan, isn’t ironclad yet. The State Legislature must first sign off on the proposal, which was introduced in June. The governor must also sign the bill. 

Assemb. Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove), a bill sponsor, expressed reservations about how the tax would be imposed. He said he wants the city to hold a hearing so the public can weigh in on the proposal.

"There’s only one place in Glen Cove that’s going to pay a hotel tax, and that is the Glen Cove Mansion," Lavine said in an interview. "People’s relatives from Glen Cove stay at that mansion when they visit ... people whose houses burned down and need work stay there."

The city this year is struggling to meet a key revenue projection.

Officials had budgeted $3.1 million in sales tax revenue as part of its 2026 spending plan. That money was to come from Glen Cove directly collecting a cut of sales taxes generated within the city. For decades, Nassau County has collected the city's share up front before offering Glen Cove a property tax credit.  

The city budgeted for that revenue in 2026, but it never received a waiver from Nassau County for it to take effect this year. 

Moody's, the credit rating agency, downgraded Glen Cove's bond rating earlier this year, noting it didn't have the flexibility to absorb the shortfall. In September, the state Comptroller's Office said the city is "susceptible" to fiscal stress. 

"We’re pretty confident that it’s going to move forward," Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said of the hotel and motel tax legislation. "It just won’t happen as of Jan. 1."

City Controller Mike Piccirillo said he projected the $286,000 figure in the proposed 2027 budget to reflect the tax taking effect in April.

"It’s a small fee, tax, on each night stayed at a hotel," Piccirillo said. "Included in their bill will be not just the hotel rate for the room, and the county taxes and the state taxes, but this 4% tax that will go to the City of Glen Cove directly."

The Mansion did not respond to a request for comment about the proposal.

Other municipalities across the state, including the Village of Atlantic Beach, are authorized to impose a hotel occupancy tax. Nassau County has a 3% hotel and motel occupancy per-night tax, and Suffolk County charges a 5.5% tax. The levy covers any facility that offers overnight lodging.

The Glen Cove tax would be added on top of the existing Nassau County charge, Piccirillo said. 

City Counci lman John Perrone  said he is concerned that the revenue depends on what happens in Albany next year, and follows the unrealized sales tax projection.

While the hotel tax isn’t slated to bring in as much money as revenue from the sales tax, he said, every funding source is important. "A dollar is a lot of money if you don’t have it," Perrone said.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ

Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the city of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance.