AUBURN -- Cayuga County legislators defeated a bill Tuesday night requesting state authorization to increase the county's Hotel and Motel Room Tax from 3 to 5 percent.

The bill may have saved county taxpayers even more than the $418 the occupancy tax relieves each household of annually.

Legislators voted 7-6 in favor of the bill, but due to the absence of two legislators the bill was defeated using the county's weighted voting system.

Prior to voting, Meg Vanek, executive director of Cayuga County Office of Tourism, briefed legislators stating that the county has the second lowest tourism budget in the area.

"We're not going to be able to compete with neighboring counties the way we should be," Vanek said following the vote. "It won't set us back but we won't be able to move forward."

After a polling of county hotels, motels and inns, she reported that 81 percent said they supported an increase as long as the funding went toward tourism promotion.

If legislators supported the increase and state officials authorized the request, Vanek and her office could have received about $125,000 in additional revenue to use for a plan to expand county tourism marketing and promotion efforts.

Legislator David Pappert, R-Auburn, voted against the increase due to the uncertainty of where the additional revenue would go. Last year, the county received about $226,000 in revenue from the tax.

He requested that a statement be added to the resolution that assured the tourism office receives all the funding.

"I'm going to make sure the money gets into the right hands," Pappert said. "I'm only going to support it if we can ensure it's going to the tourism office."

Read the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Citizen.