KINGSTON – The Ulster County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee Thursday failed to give its approval to a new policy to dedicate revenue generated from collection of the occupancy tax to housing and transportation initiatives.
Majority Leader Abe Uchitel said the policy would have guaranteed funds are there for those initiatives.
“This is a fund that when folks are building housing or redeveloping housing, affordable housing, which is what the housing action fund outlines, having the funding available and having it available in a sustainable way; these projects take a long time to come to fruition, and to know that that money is there, that the county is committed to it in a sustainable way as opposed to a one-time injection is fairly significant,” he said.
Twenty-five percent of the occupancy tax would have been applied to each of the housing and transportation initiatives.
