Visitors paid $12K in new Medina bed tax in first 3 quarters

Photo by Tom Rivers: The Comfort Inn and Suites on Maple Ridge Road in Medina has 58 rooms for guests. The hotel opened in March 2022.

MEDINA – The Village of Medina implemented a new 2 percent bed tax last June and it has generated just over $12,000 for the village so far.

Hotels, motels, short-term rentals and other lodging establishments need to pay the village the occupancy tax in quarterly payments. So far Medina has been through three quarters of the new tax and it has raised $12,318.71 for Medina, said Jada Burgess, Medina’s clerk-treasurer.

The 2 percent tax is on top of the 8 percent sales tax and Orleans County’s 4 percent bed tax.

The bed tax in Medina gives the village some new revenue at a time when it faces rising costs. The village has tried in recent years for a boost in the local sales tax revenue and also more money from the state in Aid and Incentives to Municipalities or AIM, but has seen little change from the county and state.

When the tax was implemented the Village Board didn’t designate how the funds would be spent, except to specify the money will be “allocated at the discretion of the Medina Village Board for any Village purpose.”

The village tried for several to get the tax in place, but it took approval from the State Legislature and the governor.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill on Nov. 22, 2024, culminating a process that started in 2018 with village officials looking to generate some additional money.