GOSHEN – Orange County lawmakers Thursday approved a five percent hotel/motel room tax in a move they expect will earn the county millions in additional revenue each year.

A home rule request to the state legislature asking permission to implement the tax was approved by a two-to-one margin, with some legislators upset that the municipalities in the county won’t benefit from it, as the county will.

Legislator Roxanne Donnery said she would like to see a share of the tax go back to the municipalities.

“It would be such a benefit to all of us if there could be some way that we could figure out how to help them as a county by possibly adding above that five percent and proportionately sharing it back to the rooms that would be in that community.”

Town of Highlands Supervisor Inga Quaintance said the room tax would help them greatly if they were given a share of the proceeds.

“We’re very much in favor of such a room tax.  We’re very landlocked.  We’re surrounded by state, the federal government, the river, and the mountains.  We have no tax base to speak of.  We’ve lost 93 percent of our taxable land to the feds or to the state.”

Legislature Chairman William Lahey is in full support of the bill.  “The legislature in Albany comes back to session in November, and there’s not even a guarantee they will address it then, but we’re trying to have it there by November.  Holding it off for a month holds it off until next year and it does impact the revenue stream the county executive is putting in.”