State forces UMass' hand in paying taxes to town

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on July 03, 2009

Starting next month, the Campus Center Hotel at the University of Massachusetts will start paying taxes to the town, ending a town-gown debate that's gone on for at least 15 years.

State Sen. Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said Wednesday that there is a provision in an amendment he filed to the state budget to expand the local-option hotel/motel tax. It has been signed by the governor and will result the application of the state tax and a local-option tax to the hotel for the first time, he said.

It was unclear at presstime how much money this will provide to Amherst.

"It's also a matter of equity for the hoteliers in the Valley," Rosenberg said. "This has been under discussion for a long time. It's time to do it."

The Lord Jeffery Inn paid a tax to the town when it was open, and an inn run by Williams College also pays a tax, he said. The Campus Center Hotel had not paid the tax because it is owned by UMass, whose property is exempt from local taxation.

The Campus Center Hotel has 116 rooms on four floors, and just underwent a $9.2 million renovation. Rooms cost between $99 and $109 a night. "We believe we now offer the best rooms in the Pioneer Valley," said Meredith Schmidt, the director, in a press release.

In the past, the Campus Center has argued that its hotel should be tax-exempt because students and families pay for it. Bud Wilkes, a former director, said in 1994, "We don't tax students for the food they eat, so why should we tax them for the use of the hotel?"

Rosenberg responded that people come to the hotel for many reasons, including conferences and visits to the Valley, or because of cost or convenience. "A hotel by any other name is still a hotel," he said.

Ed Blaguszewski, a UMass spokesman, said campus officials had just been alerted to the legislation and needed "to review the details and assess how best to proceed."

Rosenberg said, "It would have been nice if this could have been resolved as a matter between the town and the university as opposed to through legislation."