After decades of complaints from East End groups and elected officials, Suffolk will share a bit more of its annual hotel tax income with the part of the county where much of the revenue is generated. It is about time. In 2024 alone, the accommodation tax brought in close to $22 million, most of which was earmarked for a convention center and Discover Long Island’s tourism promotion budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill this week that will force the county to pay $250,000 a year to help upkeep at the Montauk Lighthouse — one of the state’s most iconic landmarks.
A stunning 1.2 million visits were recorded at Montauk Point State Park last year, according to state data. While not among the top 10 parks statewide, Montauk Point is no slouch; the busiest site was Niagara Falls (8.9 million) followed by Jones Beach (7.9 million). Suffolk has about 12,000 hotel and motel rooms. While only about 20 percent of the rooms are on the East End, the eye-popping price per night here means that its portion of the county’s 5-percent tax is disproportionately high.
Given this part of the county’s importance as a destination and as an economic engine for all of Long Island, the $250,000 outlay for the Lighthouse should be just a starting point. Rather than spending more on marketing — and certainly not for a stalled convention center development in Islip for which an earlier budget of more than $2 billion was proposed — more of the yearly tax should come back in the form of visitor infrastructure assistance, such as improving roads and transportation alternatives, as well as ground and surface-water protection.
It is regrettable that it has taken Albany’s intervention to force the county to do something it should have been doing all along.