I just checked out of a hotel in Manhattan. The City’s hotel tax structure, influenced and even lowered by Mayor Rudy Guiliani, is 14 3/4 percent combined state and city sales tax plus $3.50 a room in state and city unit fees. Thus, a $400 a night room is taxed a total of $62.50 in New York City. But in Dana Point, the same room is taxed, under a scheme influenced and raised by then Mayor and current councilwoman Lisa Bartlett, at $78. Go figure the logic of that. It’s not like Dana Point has the infrastructure needs of New York City, even with a large bankrupt hotel.
