Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) "Thank you for asking. It would have been nice to have this conversation before the announcement was made," said Patrick Kaler, President and CEO of Visit Buffalo Niagara.
Kaler appeared on WBEN Friday morning, the day after Mayor Chris Scanlon
delivered his State of the City address. Among other things, Scanlon proposed a 3% hotel tax as a means of helping to close a deficit that is reported to be in the vicinity of $60 million dollars.
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"No one has reached out to me. It would have been nice to be at the table. Last year when this came up, and then eventually went away, they told me they would engage me as well as our hotel industry."
That didn't happen.
Currently, the Erie County bed tax is 13.75%. By adding an additional 3%, it will take it to 16.75%.
"That will take Buffalo," Kaler said, "from number 91 in the country to number 25, tied with San Francisco for highest bed tax cities in the country."
Kaler has plenty of issues with the proposal.
"Right now the biggest influx of tourists coming into the area are Canadian and with tariff talk we're already starting to see a decrease in tourists. On top of that, their exchange rate is horrible. It's going to be a problem for us."
He went on to say that downtown Buffalo is also challenged by the loss of 500 hotel beds due to the Buffalo Grand Hotel being offline. "We're not able to attract large conventions right now, and I don't think the city is going to reap the benefits that they think they're going to get," he explained.
Kaler said he has a meeting scheduled with Mayor Scanlon on March 31.
He added that he has reached out to members of the local delegation of the State Legislature, which would have to approve a hotel tax. He does not believe there is an appetite right now to move it forward in the state senate.
Kaler ended our conversation with this. "It would have been nice to be brought to the table before it was part of an address."