From the Niagara Gazette:
The owner of a pair of hotels in Niagara Falls has filed a legal claim seeking the return of nearly $300,000 in hotel room occupancy taxes collected from patrons who sought lodging at its properties last year.
The notice of petition, filed by Falls attorney John Bartolomei on behalf of the hotels’ owner, NFNY Hotel Management, LLC, seeks a refund totaling $285,808.75 for hotel room occupancy tax collected from June 30, 2015 through Sept. 30, 2015. The notice indicates that the petitioner wishes to “refund such amount to the patrons from whom it was collected.”
The claim, filed as an article 78 proceeding, asserts that the tax was “erroneously, illegally and unconstitutionally imposed” by the city through the office of Controller Maria Brown and is in “violation and contradiction to the statutory authority under which said tax has been imposed.”